House of Hades and the Son of Time
by Soozin Hevincarrr
Summary: Wars are hard times. Hundreds, if not thousands die. Innocent get hurt. I finally thought I'd escaped war after fighting in two, but fate had other ideas. War has twisted many minds, but I never thought they would uncover the truth about Zane. My FIRST!
1. I Help a Chimera Destroy a School

**DICLAIMER: Did you think I owned Percy Jackson or any of its characters? Coz I don't. I own this s****tory though. Not the characters, not all of them anyways.**

**Chapter 1: I Help a Chimera Destroy a School**

The week after the seven returned from Mt Olympus and the giant attack on camp ended, the last thing I wanted to do was destroy a school to rescue another half-blood. We'd just had a huge war where Roman and Greek demigod children were forced to work together to save the world. It had been the end of the second great prophecy of the century. But Kyle (my satyr friend) had insisted rescuing this demigod should be much higher on my list of priorities than rest and chill-out time.

Kyle had apparently found a demigod that radiated more power than me, Percy and Thalia together. No demigod could be as powerful as all three children of the big three. Monsters apparently followed the demigod everywhere, but never attacked. It was a disaster waiting to happen, waiting for a bunch of well trained demigods to come and rescue a weaker one and score four dead demigods for the price of one.

I headed towards the camp stables, Percy had a pegasi ready for me and my two friends embarking on this mission. A pegasus neighed in frustration. Percy smiled.

"He says you smell like dead people," Percy said.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," I replied. Being the son of Hades and all I usually smell like dead people. I put my hand on the hilt of my Stygian iron sword.

"When we found you," Percy begun, "My mom drove us up."

"I guess I'm just unlucky," I sighed. Percy had been careful not to say "When we found you and your sister" he thought I'd get emotional or something, my sister had died four years ago now when I was 10. Bianca had joined the Hunters of Artemis and left me only days before she'd died. I'd made Percy promise to keep her safe, but Bianca had decided to sacrifice herself to save the others. I'd blamed Percy at first, but after talking with my sister's soul I realized I could only blame her. Her death still had me a bit sad, but I moved on life's tough get used to it.

Savanna burst into the stables.

"You ready Nico?" she asked playfully. Her brown hair was cut only to pass a short way under her chin. Her bright amber eyes shone like the sun, which made sense seeing as she was the daughter of Apollo. Her full brother (both parents were the same) Michel Yew had died during the battle against Kronos two years before. He looked exactly like her only shorter and she smiled more. Savanna had been devastated and stayed out of contact with everyone for the rest of the war. I'd eventually checked in the Underworld to see where all the fallen campers had gone to. When I told her that her brother had made it to Elysium, she'd been super happy and been a close friend ever since. All the campers thought we had some sort of closer relationship, but we didn't, we were friends we just understood each other. She was like my sister and I was like her brother we knew how we felt our sibling had died on us and we were like a replacement sibling for each other.

"Heck I'm ready!" Justin replied bursting through the doors holding his celestial bronze spear at the ready. Justin was from the Nemesis cabin and was not ashamed to say his mother was only a minor god. He had empty purple eyes which was the most striking thing about his appearance. His blonde hair was always perfectly combed like he cared how it looked. He was uber tall-like cyclops tall. I'd met him whilst constructing our cabins after the gods had agreed to have a cabin for each god who had children at the camp. There was only two other kids in his, cabin, but it was better than my absence of company. We all mounted our Pegasi and flew into the world.

If you've ever flown out in the open you'll know how amazing it is to have the evening breeze in your face and freedom of soaring towards the clouds. Our Pegasi flew us quickly to our destination, some boarding school in Washington. We were dropped off at a perfect manor, with pruned vines climbing up the spotless red brick wall. Marble columns supported the walls in various places all perfect as well. A huge variety of flower bushes and plants were in gardens in seemingly random spots, but they formed the school crest when viewed from above. The place made me want to hurl, no kids in their right state could be this tidy. Clearly we'd be rescuing some stuck up kid of Athena (no offense Annabeth). The huge archway and the perfectly manicured hedges seemed to be saying "welcome to tartarus"

"How'd Kyle get in?" Savanna asked. "Only a girls school can smell this good."

"Hey..." Justin protested.

"Only a girls school could look so stuck up," I fired back jokingly. Savanna laughed as we began to approach the doors.

The huge antique doors had carvings of vines and candles and other stupid moralistic things. I lifted the huge ring in the golden lion head door knocker.

"Don't!" an urgent voice behind me whispered. I dropped the knocker and it banged against the doors. Kyle was behind me. "They'll reckon you've been out past curfew and cane you!"

"Wha?" Justin asked.

"I thought the cane was banned!" Savanna said.

"These guys never found out," Kyle sighed rubbing his back as if he'd had some bad experience with that. Kyle adjusted his navy blue cap so I could see the emblem on it. A motto was printed underneath it, "order and discipline".

"Clearly a nice place," I muttered.

"So if we're not using the door," Justin begun.

"The other students aren't all obedient brats," Kyle explained. "We have a way or two in and out of the school the teachers haven't found. Totally unguarded safest way in. Follow me." Savanna gave me a nervous glance as if to say, "I don't like this place". I had to agree. The cane was banned like years ago, I was sure it was against the law. Kyle jogged through the garden with Justin by his side.

"Let's go Dead Breath," Savanna elbowed me and ran towards the guys. I ran after her smiling.

Kyle led us down towards the other side of the grounds constantly turning around as if he thought a ghost was haunting him. He stopped at the foot of a huge statue of a guy on a horse. A plaque below the guy read: "Charlie Douglas Founder of Douglas's Boys Orphanage. 1846", whether that was the date the guy was born, died or founded the school it didn't say. Kyle knelt down and whispered, "Ms Thermon is an ugly, fat, yeti, who I hate." The statue shifted. It shook and rose a meter into the air held up by metal supports. Kyle slid himself in. I slid myself in as the others followed.

"How can it be a boy's school?" Savanna was muttering. We were in a dark tunnel though the darkness didn't bother me. I could just tell where we were it was like my pupils could use darkness as well as light to see things, how I knew I was in darkness, I could sense it. It was weird, feeling the darkness, just as putting your hands on a light can be really hot darkness made me cold, but I liked cold. I turned my friends, Savanna was standing really still her eyes closed and whispering to herself, Justin was walking around with his arms out trying to feel where a wall was and Kyle, he was holding the rocky side of the cave and was slowly progressing forwards.

"Nico?" Justin asked. He'd walked into Savanna. She turned around and punched him in the face.

"Ow," he said. Savanna blew into her hands. A light began to illuminate the tunnel. My eyes didn't like that.

"How do you do that?" Justin asked in awe.

"Duh, my dad's only the sun god," Savanna said. Justin looked humiliated. Kyle looked at the light.

"Should've figured you could do that. You're gonna wanna turn that off before we get to the end of the tunnel," Kyle warned.

"You brought mortals?" Savanna whined.

"Here we're all brothers," Kyle said. "Sam wouldn't let me go unless he could guard the tunnel."

"Is Sam the guy?" I asked hopefully no such luck.

"No Sam's a guy from my dorm the guy we're after thinks I'm a disease. He's in the 13 year old's dorms. He shares a room with a cyclops who owns a pet chimera!"

"This is gonna be fun," Justin sighed shifting his spear in his pocket (yeah it shrinks into portable size). I twisted the ring I on my finger. I'd stolen it from the underworld three years before. Chimeras. I had bad experiences with them. If Minos was still alive I would've tortured him until he died.

Savanna blew the glowing ball in her hands out when we reached the end of the tunnel. Sure enough Sam was waiting at the top of a ladder.

"Kyle!" The guy hissed. "They'll kill you if they find out you brought company, particularly a girl."

"If you don't blow our cover," Savanna began. "We'll bust you out of here." Sam liked that idea.

"Kay, I'll get you up," Sam agreed. We began to ascend the ladder. After he helped us up he turned to Kyle and asked, "What exactly is the 'really important' thing you had to do?" Kyle just said, "Go through the passage and don't come back, you'll find a family - somewhere. The school just won't be safe anymore. You can't help unless you leave. Sorry Sam."

"There's gotta be some way I can help!" Sam exclaimed. "I've sat around all my life learning how to be a super nerd who never puts a toe near the line! Surely there's something I could do! I know where the fire alarm activator thingo is, I could get the school to evacuate safely!" Kyle thought hard.

"Kay dude," he decided. "Go ring that alarm for me and get out."

"I'm on it!" Sam was beaming with excitement as he ran down the marble corridor.

"C'mon guys," Justin said. "We've got a demigod to save." We ran through the corridor in the opposite direction.

We were soon in a corridor full of doors. Sirens began blaring.

"Good job Sam," Kyle whispered. Worried murmuring filled the rooms. I was sort of expecting screaming, but it was a boy's orphanage. Doors burst open and boys started walking out. A couple saw Savanna and gave us weird glances. Some realized Justin and I had never been here before and gave us a death stare. A sandy-haired guy burst through the door in front of us. The moment his golden eyes glanced at Savanna I knew he was the demigod. Not because no normal kid has golden eyes, buy because I could feel power radiating from him. Kyle nudged me and walked after the kid. I was about to follow when a guy who must've been seven feet tall stood in my way.

"Smell demigod," he announced, his voice made it sound like some one had rubbed his throat with sandpaper. "Dead people," he sniffed, he was carrying a fat ginger cat in his arms. "They wannoo hurt master!"

"Yes imbecile," another voice hissed. Savanna pinched my shoulder.

"Nico," she whispered. "Let's..." before she finished I pushed her into the crowd of boys all wandering towards the exit. She tried to push back to me, but it was pointless in the crowd.

A shadow moved from above me, the cyclops had left.

"Hurry up!" Justin ordered pulling me forwards. "Splitting up won't hurt us now!" We begun walking when there was a crashing sound from behind, I heard the scream I'd been expecting. I turned. Giant man had one red eye in the centre of his forehead and was holding a huge chunk of brick wall in his hands, ready to throw.

"RUN!" I yelled, around me everyone began running. They couldn't see that he only had one eye, but I was pretty sure they all saw he was ready to flatten everyone in his path with the school's walls. I pulled my sword from its sheath and charged at the cyclops.

"THE WORLD'S FULL OF MADMEN!" some kid yelled. Justin was running behind me his bronze spear extending into full size. We took the cyclops by surprise but he didn't stay that way. He looked at us confused and then realized we were trying to kill him. He pegged the rock at us. I dove to the floor as it whistled over my head. Justin dove to the side the huge chunk of wall grazing his arm. I jumped up and summoned a small group of undead friends to help me. They were all wearing Greek battle armor, which was way more protection than what I had. The cyclops didn't like that. He roared and stomped on the ground so hard it cracked. My undead warriors shook so hard they fell apart. Justin three his spear and it went straight through the cyclops' chest. The cat fell to the ground and hissed, freakishly snake-like for a cat. Justin ran to retrieve his spear from the cyclops that was disintegrating into dust.

Don't jinx us, I prayed silently.

"That was easy," Justin boasted as he picked his spear up from the pile of dust. The ginger cat hissed more violently arching it's back in anger, no it wasn't arching its back, it was growing. Its legs began to extend and its head morphed into a lion's.

"Which end's the front?" Justin asked. Soon a nine foot lion was glowering down at me. Hissing begun again, but from the other end (and no a great yellow flood did not come and destroy us).

"Argh," Justin groaned. "Ow!"

"You ok?" I asked trying to see him behind the chimera.

"Snake-butt bit me," he explained weakly. That only meant one thing.

"Don't move!" I ordered. I needed to get the lion away from Justin. "Hey fat kitty! Wanna come play dress-ups with your dead cyclops buddy?" I shadow travelled a few steps back to get it to notice me more. The chimera's lion head snarled and followed me wearily. I backed away and begun sprinting. I knew my plan had worked - there was only one flaw: I had no hope of killing a chimera on my own. I ran through the endless maze of halls and classrooms. Anyone walking calmly like it was a drill and they knew it became panicked when I sprinted past. I knew I couldn't keep up the pace for much longer so, but I had no way to slow him. Then I thought of something. When I was ten after Percy had told me Bianca - my sister was dead even though I'd known for a while. Zombies had come for Percy, I'd gotten angry and willed the land to open and consume them - even if I hadn't let on that I did. Maybe I could make a wall fall on the chimera or something.

"Please Dad," I urgently whispered. "Please help." Dad had caused earthquakes in Las Vegas surely he could make a school collapse at least part of one. I concentrated on the stone walls surrounding me, still sprinting for my life. I pictured destruction and put enough force into my arms to push over Mt Everest. The wall beside me began to shudder. My arms were burning, but I continued pushing on the air in front of me. The wall split, and fell. I slid out of the abyss before I got hurt, but my effort had me tired enough.

The chimera roared and spat fire everywhere. I could push down walls with mental power, but not resist fire. The school was now really on fire. The chimera began clawing its way out of the wreckage. I willed the roof to collapse, pushing on nothing once again to make it fall. This time the chimera got really angry. Its serpent tail spat venom at me. The stuff even smelt deadly. How the Hades was Justin meant to live? I pushed that question out of my head and ran away. I turned only to see the pile of debris had shifted and the chimera was not chasing me.

An angered roar thundered from ahead. I ran over.

"Nico?" Kyle asked. "Some warning please!" The chimera was trying to attack Kyle, but roots had tangled themselves around its feet. Kyle had been using his reed pipes to play some woodland magic song that made roots come out of the ground. The chimera's tail broke free and bit Kyle. He howled in pain and collapsed the chimera turned on me again. Savanna ran into the room.

"Nico!" she yelled. "Are you crazy?"

"A bit,"

"You can't fight it on your own!"

"I know!" I said. "But Kyle and Justin got poisoned! You have to help them."

"Fine!" she didn't look happy about it, but she begun whispering a healing prayer to Apollo, her father. The chimera pounced. Savanna screamed. I dove to the ground as a chimera flew over my head. The chimera smashed through a wall that began to split and fall. Savanna dragged Kyle back as the wall started crumbling.

"XYLOPHONE!" Kyle yelled in his unconscious daze.

I scrambled back as the wall's dark shadow approached. I braced for impact- for death. Savanna was screaming my name as time seemed to slow down. The wall seemed to slow its fall. I closed my eyes as a new voice screamed, "KYLE!" I dared to look up. I expected the huge wall to crash down on me at any moment. The sandy-haired guy who'd come out of the same room as the cyclops and chimera was at Kyle's feet. The rock began moving faster again, I slid out of the way, totally confused and shocked. The crumbling wall pounded the ground where I'd just been and shattered.

"RUN NICO!" Savanna screamed. The next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach on the floor. A huge heavy paw was holding me down.

"What is that?" sandy-haired kid yelled. The chimera got distracted. I rolled over and went to stab it. The chimera was to fast it jumped back snarling. I ran at it slashing my sword violently through the air. Chimera tried to bite me and as I backed up sent its snake tail over to bite me. I instinctively sliced its head off. The chimera wailed and roared. It charged. I ran.

We were running aimlessly through burning corridors and stopping to try killing each other for ages. I couldn't beat it. Finally I stopped. I concentrated on the ground, the underworld beneath it and earthquakes. I dropped my sword unthinkingly and clapped my hands together. Instead of the usual slap, there was an earth-shattering boom. My knees buckled, my vision went foggy and I dropped.

**A.N: Just to let you know I'm writing this for my own pleasure and posting it so peeps can read it. If you don't like it you don't have to read. Constructive criticism will be appreciated and flames will be extinguished with the power of laughter (EAT HAPPINESS MEAN-FACE). And comments will be adored and given my uttermost love and adoration, OK maybe not that much, but I'll like you. Soz if you think Nico's a bit OOC, but when he starts to fit in around camp half-blood he'd probably be a bit lighter and not so grouchy, so don't blame me. If you have any suggestions on how I could improve a character's personality or how to make them more believable, please tell me I'm a fail at enhancing personality. **


	2. Zane is Undetermined

Chapter 2: Zane Is Undetermined

A man with dark oily hair stood in front of me. He was as pale as a ghost and had the same dark eyes as me. He seemed to radiate fear and darkness.

"Dad?" I asked in surprise.

"Hello son," he greeted his voice calm yet menacing. "You've made a lot of progress at your camp."

"Uh, thanks." It seemed awkward talking to my dad after such a long time.

"You're beginning to understand the full extent of the powers you have inherited. You sent the chimera back into my domain and sent a small earthquake through the school," Hades/Dad explained.

"So you came to tell how many people I killed."

"No, I'm here to warn you." I knew that couldn't be good. Even if I had a closer godly father and son relationship than pretty much every camper, when he needed to warn me about something it wasn't going to be good.

"Bad things will happen," he continued. "Friends will turn on you, you will see things your worst nightmares couldn't imagine, you will be tried and tested beyond your limits and you will feel as if you're alone." His words had me seriously confused and worried, there would never be a peaceful year in my life.

"Dad," I begun. "Is something going to happen? Is there going to be a quest? Is someone trying to raise Kronos again or some worse force?" My father put his hands on my shoulders.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you my son, just remember, I will always be watching you, no matter what time," he gave me a fatherly hug and smiled at me. "Goodbye son."

"Bye dad." I looked into his loving eyes as my vision began to blur. I felt like I was spinning I fell backwards and blacked out.

I sat up instantly. I was on a bed in the crowded camp infirmary, early streams of sunlight seeping through the faded curtains. I looked around. So many kids had been injured in the recent giant war, after what Dad had said it sounded as if another war was threatening. I saw Kyle and Justin in nearby beds, each with tons of ambrosia on the table next to them. I was just glad to see they were ok.

"The dead finally awakes!" another injured camper announced. Will Solace from the Apollo cabin was sitting on his bed a bandage wrapped around his shoulder. In the giant war, a giant had tried to make him a shish-kebab and punctured his lung. He was still healing up.

"You've been out a day," Will explained.

"Really?" I asked.

"What'd you do to get yourself like that?"

"I really don't know. I was like trying to destroy the chimera and I like got the ground to eat it and used to much energy and now I'm here." Will nodded he understood the situation.

"You're crazy, too much power, you can summon undead armies, get ghosts to obey your every command and get the ground to swallow your enemies. So cool. I get the boring powers, I can glow in the dark and heal people."

"It's not half as bad you make it seem, dead people aren't the nicest company," I said. Will smirked.

"I'm going to go get some morning air," Will said suddenly sliding off his bed and walking out, leaving me alone. My sword lay on my bedside along with a fang from the chimera's tail, a souvenir from my battle. I lay back down and drifted to sleep again.

"Nico!" Savanna yelled, waking every sleeping camper in the infirmary.

"You're alive!"

"I was dead," I joked. "Dad let me go free." She laughed.

"Well, you should probably meet the guy you risked your butt to save," she said. "Zane's really wanting to meet you." I got up grabbed my stuff and followed Savanna out. She led me to the basketball courts where the sandy-haired guy from the school was playing basketball with the Apollo campers.

"Is he your brother?" I asked Savanna. She shook her head.

"He just hangs with me and my siblings because I'm the first person he met, who was conscious anyway." We stood on the sideline and watched the orange team thrash purple. Sandy-hair wasn't very good, but seemed to be having a good time. A kid blew a whistle and called time.

"Archery practice," the guy called. One of the Apollo campers, Spencer I think his name was, gave sandy-hair a friendly punch and followed his siblings. Sandy-hair came over to us with sweat pouring down his face. He tipped his drink bottle over his head and turned to me. He looked over me like I was a disease before smiling at Savanna.

"Nico this is Zane," Savanna introduced. "Zane, Nico."

"Hi," I said.

"You're the guy that was next to the huge hole in the ground, with the smoking hands," Zane said.

"What?"

"After you ran away with the chimera there was a huge bang and an earthquake. The school was pretty much destroyed, but we found you unconscious near a huge crevasse and you were smoking again," Savanna explained.

"Oh," I thought back to the moment I'd destroyed the chimera and the stuff my dad had said about power. "So, Zane. Which cabin you in?"

"Don't know," he said.

"You are thirteen right?"

"Yes, but whoever my parent is they haven't claimed me yet." Zane looked down to the ground.

"He's gone to classes with my cabin lately, but Chiron organized a room in the Big House for him," Savanna informed. I turned to the blue house in the centre of the camp.

"No ideas on who his parent is?" I checked, different cabins all had different professions: the Apollo cabin all rocked at archery, the Ares cabin all had short tempers, the Aphrodite cabin all were pretty obsessive over how they looked whether they wanted to look good or not, the Athena cabin were all brainiacs and the Hermes cabin always enjoyed looting and stealing never felt any guilt.

"I suck at archery," Zane tried.

"So not Apollo," I suggested.

"But he's an artist on the piano," Savanna helpfully interrupted.

"I'm not that great," Zane said.

"He's super smart, can't hold his breath underwater, can't sense when people are dead, enjoys fights, doesn't care much about love, doesn't like storms, is no good at magic tricks, doesn't care about family, likes stealing, but pays back in secret and hates gardening," Savanna said.

"What?" I asked.

"How did you know all that?" Zane asked.

"The quiz paper Chiron gave you last night after no one claimed you, I took it and read it before I gave it to Chiron. There was no balance of any of the gods attributes."

"So we have no clue what cabin to put him in," I checked. Savanna nodded.

"We should probably go to archery," Zane said.

"You want to?" Savanna asked.

"I can't get better if I don't try, maybe my parent wants me to prove myself worthy to be their son or something?"

"That's a good point," I said. "See you round."

"Later," Savanna replied.

"Bye," Zane said as he followed Savanna across the camp.

As I walked to the sword fighting arena for training with Percy, I ran into Annabeth.

"Hey Nico!" she called sort of forcing me to talk to her.

"Hi."

"During your rescue mission, Savanna said something about an earthquake, I figured Lord of the Dead would have something to do with it." She stared at me with her cloudy grey eyes as if she could see into my thoughts.

"I sort of made it," I explained. "I was going to be eaten by a chimera if I didn't!"

"I know, but sometimes it seems like you're too powerful for your own good. Either something crazy is going to happen and you'll get some really important quest or something or your power will get to your head and you'll try to destroy the world." Great, now Annabeth thinks I'm going to be a serial killer.

"I didn't ask for it, I don't enjoy using my powers, I'm just a normal half-blood."

"I hope you're right Nico," and with that Annabeth walked away. No one seemed to think my life was going to be happy.

When I got to the arena Percy was waiting. We trained for ages. Even though he was the better fighter we were evenly matched. Percy taught me the disarming trick and continued to beat me. When we stopped for a break we were both covered in sweat.

"Zane the new kid," Percy begun, "Am I the only one or do you think he looks a lot like Luke." Luke was the guy who'd started the second Titan war and provided a body for Kronos whilst he gained enough energy to resume his true form, though Luke had also been the hero who ended the war by killing himself and destroying Kronos at the same time. He had sandy hair like Zane, the same sort of head shape and nose, but his eyes were so different.

"Son of Hermes?" I suggested.

"You might be right," Percy said. "I don't think Annabeth will be able to talk to Zane without crying." I laughed; Annabeth could barely talk about Luke without balling.

"That might make it hard for her to teach him Ancient Greek," I joked, Percy didn't seem to think it was funny.

"There's something different about him, something abnormal, another presence or something when he walks past. You don't send out that much power."

"You don't either." As both of us were sons of one of the Big Three that was a lot of power.

Dinner that night was a blur, Mr D (for Dionysus) squashed all the announcements together, Zane ate with the Apollo campers, I ate alone and Rachel the Oracle said she'd be staying at camp for a while. The bonfire sing-along was the same as ever and returning to my lonely cabin was too familiar. The skull lanterns that littered the room gave it an eerie green light and the black ore walls with carvings of the underworld gave my cabin a haunting feel, no one normal would be able to sleep in the place, but I wasn't normal. I lay in bed for ages, but sleep wouldn't take me. Zane was the question on my mind. Who was his parent? What would explain his resemblance to Luke? Why did he give off so much power? I knew his future could not be good. My eyelids began to feel heavy and next thing I knew was I as asleep.

My dream that night was really weird. I was in an ancient city, much like Rome or Athens. Men in full battle armour were everywhere. On walls that surrounded the city, in it's stores and walking around for no apparent reason. A man grabbed my shoulder. Behind him stood a group of men, two standing towards the front held chains that were holding a girl no older than me, who was struggling desperately against them. She glared at me with intense brown eyes. Her tan complexion was pale and dirty, her brown hair was messed up beyond messy.

"General," the lead man said. "We have captured the annoying Greek girl you wanted. She refuses to be a slave or servant. What should we do?" I turned to him and replied in a voice that was not my own, "If she wishes to be treated as a man she will. We can spare some soldiers to prison her. Give her a general's punishment."

"Very well. Men take her to the camp!" the other guy ordered his men.

"You're going to loose this war!" The girl in chains yelled. "You can't keep Helen under your protection for much longer!" I looked at the girl. Anger and regret burned inside me.

"You Greek dogs have been trying for ten years, what have you achieved?" I spat on the ground. "NOTHING!"

"At least we die with honour!" the girl yelled.

"If you believe girls deserve to be able to make your own choices, you should call off your foolish attacks and let Helen decide what she wants."

"You don't understand!"

"Take her away!" I ordered. She began screaming again and fighting.

My dream faded into darkness. I woke up in my room. A trail of moonlight seeped through the only window. I recapped my weird dream. Being a half-blood the dream had probably once occurred only real. Whoever the dream was about, they all probably had tough lives, the war over Helen or the Trojan War was a pretty long one. They'd all probably lived in fear throughout half their lives. They all must have hated Helen.

Even though it was still dark, I got up and changed into my camp clothes. As I walked out into the night air wind whipped wildly around me. That wasn't normal, camp kept bad weather out, all the time. The moon sent needles of light into the grounds that no one would be able to see in. I looked around. There seemed to be nothing abnormal occurring. I continued to walk towards the direction of the violent winds. Then, bang! I stumbled back as a panicked camper yelled, "Sorry!" as they ran away. I stared forwards, but couldn't see anything weird. Until I heard it. Wind whistled violently as a noise like a giant insight flew through the area. Bits of golden dust blew through the darkness in a small tornado. They stopped right in front of me before flying into my skin. It was like pins and needles everywhere. A voice spoke in my mind.

"Help me Nico Di Angelo," the voice was loud, cold, cruel and piercing. "When you join my cause you will be rewarded beyond your comprehension." I saw myself in a palace made of gold and precious stones, Savanna, Kyle, Justin and Percy sat on thrones next to me. People worshipped on every side and I could hear myself and my friends laughing, we were happy - happier than ever. My vision blurred and the voice carried on. "If you fail to join me they will become angry with one another and tear the world apart." Visions of screaming people surrounded by a burning world, buildings crashing down around them. "Order is all that is needed. I can restore order. Join me. Join me and I will give you your sister back." I saw Bianca smiling and laughing with me like we used to.

"NICO!" Percy's voice rang into my ears, panicked as ever. Gold dust exploded out of me and soared into Percy. He collapsed and began moaning in pain. I tried to go help him, but some invisible force sent me flying through the air and left me flat on my back. A camper offered me a hand as they ran towards Percy. They helped me up and ran towards the winds. I saw Percy ahead. His eyes glowed gold, a gold I'd seen before. The sort of gold Luke had in his eyes when he was possessed by Kronos. Winds whipped violently around him. He drew his sword Riptide and gave me an evil grin. He slowly started edging closer. I drew my sword, Percy laughed. I stepped back as Percy came closer. He pushed some campers out of his way, but his gaze never left me. Percy raised his sword and tried to slam it through my head. I deflected the blade as Percy continued trying to kill me. I kept defending, nothing on offense - I couldn't hurt Percy, he brought me to camp and guided me through it!

"You're worthless," he spat. "You couldn't save your sister, you couldn't save Michel, and you couldn't save anyone. You've never had a quest or prophecy even after all the effort your father went through. You really are pathetic." I went to stab him with my blade.

"That's it," he taunted, "Fight." I continued jabbing forwards. I'd never had a chance to save those people, Percy had failed to save them more than me, he couldn't talk. And just because he was a huge role in the two great prophecies made him think he was better than everyone. I'll show him. I smashed his blade out of his hands. Percy looked up unarmed and smirked, "Go on." I moved my sword towards his neck.

"PERCY! NICO!" Annabeth screamed. I felt like I'd come out of a trace, Percy look equally dazed. I lowered my sword.

"You were trying to kill each other! Agh!" She squealed as the golden dust flew from Percy and me. It soared into the air after creating a minor tornado amongst the cabins. Percy's eyes were green again. Percy eyed his sword on the ground.

"Was I trying to kill you?" he asked in disbelief.

"I think I was doing the same," I said.

"Percy," Annabeth begun. "Just then your eyes were like Kronos's, like that Zane kid's." I hadn't noticed that.

"Probably some crazy coincidence," Percy said, "I mean, Kronos is my grandfather."

"This is not good," Annabeth muttered. I yawned.

"Something is defiantly not right about what just happened," Percy said. "It can only mean bad stuff's going to happen."

"Again," I sighed. And from what Dad had told me that fitted the plot too well. Someone trotted (yeah I said trotted) down from the main house.

"Nico," Chiron's firm strong voice called. "Come speak with me." I turned and followed the centaur up the hill.

He dragged me inside a room and asked me to recount the night's events. He wound up asking me things about the time I first saw Zane and a whole bunch of stuff about him. There was nothing anyone could hide from this guy, he'd either figure it out himself, or coax you into telling him.

"Zane seems to have too much power for a demigod," Chiron was saying. "You're only around half as powerful as him."

"If you're suggesting he's going to turn evil," I protested. "He wouldn't he's just an orphan. He's still confused about the whole Greek mythology thing."

"Nico, we once thought Luke was our loyal friend, he then brought us the past two wars, whether accidental or intentional, to us."

"Are you going to go all spy movie on me and tell me not to trust anyone, you'd be better off saying nothing." I was only really defensive over Zane because I didn't want to be the kid who'd destroyed a school to save some killer and Savanna trusted the guy, if I didn't trust get judgement of him I'd be better off not trusting her.

"Nico it is necessary that we trust in this life," Chiron said. "Or there would be no point to life, but be careful who you trust, some are probably sworn enemies to you throughout your life. The gold dust attack has come too close to Zane's arrival for my liking. But yet your judgement may be correct. We may be able to trust him yet." I could see through Chiron's disguise, he may have hoped I was right, but he certainly didn't believe it. He looked over me with sadness in his eyes. "Go get some rest; capture the flag is on tomorrow." I did as told.

No more crazy dreams set in the Trojan War came to me that night, no more gold sparkles attacked me and I didn't try to kill any more of my friends. The day seemed to blur together, I couldn't concentrate in anything my mind was buzzing too much. Dad's warning, gold dust, weird dream, for some weird reason I had a feeling they were all intertwined. As the evening approached, Capture the Flag teams were decided. Athena, Hermes, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hecate, Demeter and Hypnos versus Ares, Nemesis, Hephaestus, Apollo, Dionysus, Hades and Zane. As we were all readying for the game Zane came over to me.

"Do we get to kill the other team?" he sounded too excited as he asked that question.

"No," I replied. "Where's Lee put you?" Lee was the new head of Ares, as Clarisse was old enough to cope without camp and had left.

"Defence," Zane sighed.

"Cool, you're with me!"

"Yeah." He didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"At least you won't fail as hopelessly as we did my first time playing. We were against the immortal Hunters of Artemis and they don't play nice." Zane was staring down at his shoes and twisting his knife in his hand. He looked disappointed with the weapon.

"Yeah," he sighed.

"You positioning that flag yet punk?" an Ares camper ordered.

"I better go," Zane said.

"I'm on defence," I said. "I may as well come."

After we positioned the flag a group of Apollo kids came and formed a defensive formation. Zane and me were the last lines of our teams defence. The conch horn blew and we heard our captain cabin, Ares yelling and screaming. I told Zane to constantly scan the forest or the Ares gang would kill him. Occasionally an Apollo camper would fire an arrow or look over to their left; otherwise it was turning out to be a pretty uneventful game. Leaves began to rustle in the trees. I looked up and saw the silhouette of someone, running along the branches.

"Up," as I tried to warn them roots grew up around me and pulled me to the ground. As the guys from Apollo began looking around roots pulled them down as well. I couldn't see if they'd gotten Zane too.

"DEMETER!" the guy in the trees yelled landing on the ground behind me with a thud. I heard the flag being ripped out of the ground. I heard a knife being unsheathed and then it clanging against the flagpole.

"You can't use our flag against us!" Zane protested. I saw Savanna in front of me wriggle free from her roots. Unnoticed she notched an arrow into her bow and tool aim. She let it loose.

"Ow!" the guy from the tree yelled. "Come on! Get me off this rock!" I heard the flag go back into place before we heard the enemy. I frantically struggled against the roots, before finally freeing my hands, which I used to get my sword and cut the roots away. Savanna and Zane were helping the other campers. Then we heard it. The enemy sprinting towards us. Their feet made the ground vibrate a bit which of course did not boost our confidence.

Percy was first to burst through the trees, he had a victorious smirk on his face already. Zane charged him and fought. I hoped he knew what he was dealing with. I went for the, "get an army of dead guys to fight for you" approach and summoned an army of dead people.

"That's cheating!" someone yelled as the twenty undead souls walked into the woods. While the Apollo kids showered them in arrows I stood my ground and fought anyone who came near the flag. At one stage I was against two kids from the Hermes cabin when I caught sight of Percy and Zane's battle. Percy is the second best swordsman I've seen (Luke is the best) and Zane, the new kid had him disarmed and he only had a knife. My sword tugged out of my hand. Travis Stoll held my sword with a mischievous grin on his face. Connor Stoll his twin brother was running at the flag. I tackled Connor, but Travis just jumped over my head and grabbed his flag. He smirked and poked his tongue out before running into the woods. Connor got up and ran after his brother.

"Ok, so my team won. Can I get down now?" The guy from the tree had been pinned by arrows to a huge boulder. I looked at Zane who'd let Percy go run with his winning team to the finish. The conch horn sounded in the distance.

I smirked at the guy from the tree and followed Zane back into the forest.

"Come on!" he was saying. "Aw, man! Someone get me out of here!"

As we advanced through the woods we heard arguing - loud and violent arguing. Swords were clashing and kids from the Hermes and Apollo cabins were yelling at each other (the Hermes gang in rhymes).

"We were here five minutes before you!" one guy was saying.

"You guys cheated! You can't make people who are dead fight for you!"

"You can't tie people up in vines!"

"Agree that my team really won! Or I will shoot you with a gun! Rhyming is not very fun!" a Hermes kid was yelling. Then Chiron blew the conch horn.

"Is it really necessary that we kill each other?" Chiron stormed.

"Yes," Lee muttered.

"There was no clear winner," Chiron continued. "No team wins or looses."

"But sir," Leo Valdez from the Hephaestus cabin spoke up. "I beat Travis here with my awesomeness and three seconds!"

"You wish Valdez!" Piper McClean from the Aphrodite cabin said, everyone knew she could charmspeak, but all of us would wind up agreeing that her team won when she was done. "Travis made it over the line a clear min-"

"Shut up McClean!" an Australian guy from the Ares cabin called Lachlan ordered. "Chiron only said it was a tie because he felt sorry for how bad you failed."

"You think our plan failed?" Annabeth questioned a look of death in her eyes. "Our team could thrash you any day!"

"No," Leo's sister Nyssa said. "We all know nerds are hopeless in anything physical."

"You insult our whole cabin now?" Annabeth's brother Malcolm threatened. "Do you wanna fight this out right hear right now?" He drew his sword.

"Malcolm," Chiron intervened. "Put your sword away. There will be no bloodshed in this wood tonight. All of you return to your cabins!" he added forcefully. Campers began drifting away towards the cabins and Chiron began yelling at the stragglers.

I found myself next to Percy as Zane left and headed towards the Big House.

"Hey Percy," I begun. "Zane smashed you tonight." Percy frowned.

"I've only met one other person who could beat me," he replied, he didn't sound happy or frustrated. "And that was Luke. It's not natural for a new camper to have that much power unless their parent's power is at its strongest." His tone worried me.

"Maybe his mum was a dryad?" I tried.

"He wouldn't radiate the power he does. The only main god who would have a major power in that forest would be Pan, but he's been fading for eons now." That was too true. Three years ago, I'd stood there as the lost god of the wild uttered his last words. He'd given a message to everyone who had been there, except me, but as a part of Pan's spirit entered me three distinct words entered my mind, "remember your sister". One of the last things Bianca had told me was not to hold grudges; Pan had been repeating that specific message to me also. Everyone seemed to think it would lead to my death.

"His parent will probably claim him soon," I said.

"His parent better claim him soon," Percy replied and turned into cabin three.


	3. I Ask the Oracle a Sarcastic Question

Chapter 3: I Ask the Oracle a Sarcastic Question

After the violent game of capture the flag the night before, no one was in a good mood. The Demeter cabin had blocked any entrances into my cabin overnight and I had no way to get out. Eventually Chiron came around and cooled the situation down, the Demeter had insisted they were getting revenge for me leaving Theo pinned to the rocks after Capture the flag. The week went on very much the same. Cabins attacked cabins (once the Ares guys woke up underwater) and Zane remained unclaimed. The teams from capture the flag were sticking together and being as bitter as they could towards the others (I walked through the middle of the Hermes cabin and came out with bruises all over my shoulders) and defending their own team.

As I walked with the Apollo gang towards the dining pavilion, a girl from the Aphrodite cabin walked into the midst of the group and punched Spencer in the face. I'd originally thought they'd been in a relationship, but after that, my thoughts changed. The girl was screaming at him for a while before Spencer kicked her in the stomach and left her gasping for air. A bunch of her siblings glared at us before wandering towards the dining pavilion, two stayed behind to help her. Spencer began muttering in Ancient Greek and as the girl he'd kicked begun cursing again it was in rhyming couplets. As I took my seat at my empty table a fight broke out between the cabins again. Piper started yelling at an Apollo kid after he threw a burrito at her. Savanna retaliated by throwing an apple into her mouth, she had deadly accuracy. Malcolm from the Athena cabin stood up and went off at Savanna before pegging a shard of tile at her. It missed, but made the whole camp break into arguments. The Demeter cabin (who'd been attacking me ever since the Theo incident) threw rocks at me, so I did the natural thing - I summoned up some old, dead friends for some help. Percy seemed to be intensely interested in his fork, but before I knew it, my undead friends had been hit by a wave and taken out to sea. Soaking campers from my team began threatening Percy, which didn't sit well with Annabeth. She jumped up and took on Lee from the Ares cabin with her knife. Soon enough a full on battle was raging in the dining pavilion. I was taking on Theo from the Demeter cabin with my sword. The only camper who wasn't fighting was Zane. He sat at the teacher's table looking stressed as ever.

A chunk of burrito meat was fired into my face. All the other Demeter kids seemed to turn on me. I raised my sword and yelled, though it was barely audible amongst all the chaos. I sliced through countless plants that were trying to kill me. I gave their leader - Katie, the death stare. She smirked like I was hopeless. I charged her and fought with all my might, and for what it was worth, I was enjoying myself way too much. As good as I was with a sword Katie was better with her battle axe. She had my neck against the blade. I raised my sword and slammed it into the ground in frustration. Thunder rumbled in the distance, no, it wasn't thunder; it was the ground beneath my feet. Tiles began to crack and shake yet the campers kept fighting. Katie backed away cautiously.

"ENOUGH!" Chiron's forceful voice broke through the clashing of weapons and the yelling. "THIS ARGUMENT HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH! IT MUST END NOW!" People lowered their weapons, I removed my sword from the ground and the ground ceased to shake. I felt light-headed.

"Just ruin it you old horse," Mr D complained in his chair.

"Don't encourage them," Chiron warned. "A counsellors' meeting will be held straight after this meal to end this pointless feud." People began muttering and slowly easing back to their tables. The meal continued in dead silence.

I was the second one to arrive in the rec-room. Rachel the Oracle had been waiting a whole lot longer. She had her red hair swept back into a messy ponytail.

"You foresaw that whole argument didn't you?" I asked.

"No," Rachel replied. "Only parts, but I saw who won."

"Who?" I begged.

"Can't say," she replied. "You'd kill each other more." I couldn't be anything other than annoyed. Spencer entered the room. His left eye was purple and he had a cut up the opposite side of his face.

"That sucked," he announced dropping himself on a camp chair next to me. He began absentmindedly shuffling through some cards. We were soon joined by Annabeth, Percy, Katie, Leo, Piper, Lee, the other cabin leaders, Chiron and Zane. Chiron took his seat at the head of the table and began going off at us for going so extreme over a game of Capture the Flag. He told us to tell the rest of our cabin that if anyone was caught resuming the fighting behaviour they'd be isolated for the day.

"Chiron," Leo Valdez from the Hephaestus cabin begun. "You do know who won right?" Chiron looked guilty, not a good sign.

"You could tell us," Piper coaxed. "It would end the arguments." Chiron looked like he might admit for a moment. And for a minute everyone gave Chiron a pleading look. He shook himself out of the daze.

"If I told you you'd only argue more," he insisted.

"Dang it Piper!" Katie said. "Get better at charmspeaking!"

"This is the first meeting we've had in a while," Annabeth noted.

"Well after so many crazy events recently it's been hard to," Spencer pointed out.

"I know, but it's just been too long since camp had that slight sense of normal," Annabeth continued.

"If history is repeating itself we won't have another war in - well a long time," Chiron said. To me chaos at camp was normal I'd joined as it begun.

"So I'll see my twenties?" Leo asked.

"Most likely," Chiron replied. Lee groaned loudly.

"So tell our cabins to end the feud," Clovis yawned. "Can we go now?" But before Chiron could answer Clovis was snoring on the table.

"There is another thing I'd like to know," Zane's voice broke through the snores. Everyone turned to him. "Why hasn't my parent 'claimed' me yet?"

"That's something we would all like to know," Chiron sighed. "But I'm afraid none of us know the answer to that, none of us have any idea how to find out."

"Nothing personal kid," Lee started. "But I don't care who your parents are. You ain't a child of Ares."

"Thank you Lee," Chiron interrupted. "You can leave now." Lee pushed his chair over on the way out and jabbed a sleeping Clovis on the way out making him jump to life. Everyone turned back to Zane.

"I'm sorry Zane," Annabeth said gently. "We can't bend the will of the gods and make them claim you. You'll probably have to wait a month or two." Zane looked at the floor looking disappointed.

"You might be claimed though," Percy tried to lighten the atmosphere. "I got claimed at the rarest of moments." Zane seemed to perk up, but no one had anything to say, we didn't want to destroy as his spirit.

"Well," Chiron ended the awkward silence. "We should all get some sleep." The room started to empty slowly.

Soon enough there was only five of us in the room, Zane, Percy, Annabeth, Rachel and me. Chiron had left.

"I'm sure your parent will claim you soon," Percy insisted as Zane was acting really depressed. "Either that or we'll figure it out."

"The Oracle here could probably answer that," I joked. We all began to laugh. Zane clearly didn't get it, but managed a smile.

"Ok Oracle," I carried on. "How the Hades will we figure out who Zane's parent is?" We continued laughing, but Rachel suddenly stopped.

"Rachel?" Annabeth asked. Rachel's mouth fell open and green mist started pouring out of her mouth. Percy ran over to her, but we all knew she was issuing a prophecy. She began to speak, but it sounded as if three of her were at once.

"Three shall journey east

Where evils and demons feast

When wars and hatred abound

One small love will be found

As hope diminishes

The puzzles finishes

Though three days the journey takes

Two weeks the journey makes

The one who will save you

Shall seek to destroy you

The one who sought to destroy life

Shall take the world to years of strife"

As Rachel collapsed Percy caught her. Rachel looked shocked and utterly confused, then again we all were.

"What was that about?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe Zane's parent?" I suggested.

"We sort of figured," Percy said sitting Rachel down. "It sounds like some insane quest that leads to destroying the world." I didn't like that.

"Some one needs to tell Chiron," Annabeth ordered.

"Wouldn't it be best if we just waited a while before we jump to conclusions," I really didn't want Zane to feel like he'd doomed the world.

"Nico," Annabeth scolded. "I don't think we should hide 'take the world through years of strife' from Chiron. Something crazy might happen."

"If we try to change the future we'll fail," I protested. "It's going to happen anyway!" Annabeth seemed to back off a bit.

"I guess you're right," she sighed, but we need to tell some one. At least warn them in some way." I looked up at her; I couldn't not listen to her voice of reason and concern.

"No," I said. "I'll go tell Chiron." I turned to Zane. "You wanna come?" I asked him. He stood up and led the way out of the room. We left Annabeth, Percy and Rachel to the rec-room.

As we knocked on the activities director's door, a wave of nervousness washed over me. I had no idea how to explain to Chiron the prophecy or anything. The prophecy didn't even make sense! Zane hadn't spoken since he asked about his parent. I felt sorry for the kid, but in some ways, I would've loved to be him. No dead sister, no lost friends, no memories of the Titan or Giant wars, no dreams of his mother dying haunting him at night. Zane knocked on the door a second time. Soon enough Chiron called, "Coming!" and the door opened revealing Chiron with his lower stallion half compacted into a wheelchair.

"I thought you would've been in bed," he said.

"Me too," I agreed. "But uh, Rachel sort of just went all Oracle on us and gave a prophecy." Chiron suddenly appeared worried.

"What did she say?" he asked. I was about to recap the whole prophecy, but Zane recited it word for word. As Zane continued Chiron's expression began to scare me.

"That doesn't sound very good," Chiron noted. "You should probably get some rest; you'll be able to focus on the meaning better after." I yawned and began walking towards my cabin.

I thought it was going to be impossible to get to sleep after Rachel's prophecy that night, but my eyes seemed to disagree. The moment my head hit my pillow I fell asleep.

I found myself in a dirty open area. Huge metal walls formed an oval around the place. At least fifty other men were in the area all wearing tattered toga-like clothing some bloodstained and others dirt covered. Many of the men lay trying to sleep or get some rest underneath the stars, but most couldn't. There was one sole girl, the exact same one from my dream a week before, screaming and rolling around whilst asleep. I walked over towards the screaming girl. I could see her toga was ripped all over her back, but that wasn't as disturbing as the infectious looking gashes down her back all bleeding severely.

"Kronos!" she was screaming. "I can't serve you! My soul isn't yours!" Her cries made no sense, but people all around me acted as if this sort of thing from her was normal. Her eyes suddenly opened and she jerked up. She looked at me and tears began to slide down her face.

"Help me," she pleaded. "Save me son of Hades." Those last words turned my brain to mush.

I woke up in my cabin, it was morning and some one was knocking on my door. I got up and quickly changed into my camp T-shirt and jeans.

"Coming!" I called as I rushed over to open the door. Savanna was standing with an amused smirk on her face. Her eyes wandered to my hair before she said, "Well someone just woke up."

"Uh, yeah," I tried my best to casually brush my hair flat. "So, what brings you here this fine morning?"

"Will's out of the infirmary, and he told me to give you a heads up about inspection if you don't want to be doing dishes tonight."

"Is that it?" I asked glancing at my cabin behind me.

"No," Savanna replied. "But you probably have some cleaning to do, and um, I promised Kyle I'd get back to keep him company ASAP." I didn't half believe the excuse, but left her to do what she had to; I had some cleaning to do. I turned back to my cabin and started picking up my many cans and bits of rubbish from everywhere.

As I left my cabin I headed towards the canoe lake. It seemed like a normal day at camp. Everyone had stopped trying to kill each other, the camp had its sunny weather back after the winter, people milled around in their groups and the Ares cabin were bullying everyone again. Normal. That was one thing I didn't know. As I drew closer to the lake I noticed Zane standing alone next to it, staring down into the water's murky depths below.

"Hey Zane," I called. He barely glanced over his shoulder to look at me.

"Hi," he muttered.

"What's up?" I asked standing next to him.

"Nothing," he replied hastily, making it clear something was.

"Still confused about that prophecy last night?" I tried. He nodded gently.

"What prophecy?" Savanna's voice cut in. Soon enough she was standing in front of us, her ankles in the water. "Nico, what prophecy? What happened at the meeting last night? Zane what's wrong?" she continued asking.

"Last night," I began, "After everyone had left, Rachel gave a prophecy about,"

"How we'd figure out who my father is," Zane ended.

"How do you know it's your dad?" Savanna asked. "You've been an orphan your whole life."

"I just do," he explained. I knew where he was coming from.

"Anyway, this prophecy what did it say?" Savanna said.

"Stuff about going east and demons feast," I started, I was so bad at remembering things word for word.

"Three shall journey east," Zane recited. "Where evils and demons feast." He recited the whole thing word for word.

"That doesn't sound good," Savanna said once Zane finished. "And it doesn't make any sense!"

"Chiron told us to keep it quiet," I explained.

"Probably because he thinks I'm evil," Zane spat.

"Chiron doesn't think that!" Savanna assured him.

"He might he said," before I could finish Savanna cut me off.

"Chiron is never judgmental! He'd never judge anyone even if your parents were evil. His own dad is Kronos!"

"No he hates me," Zane decided. Savanna kept protesting, but neither of us were listening. I picked up a stone and skimmed it across the surface of the lake. Zane then tried to outdo me and made a rock bounce four times over the water. I picked up another rock and attempted to skim it across the water again, but it hit the water and sunk while Zane made a stone jump seven times. He laughed at my pathetic failure and I joined him.

"What did I say?" Savanna asked. "What are you two laughing at? Tell me!" She seemed to think she'd said something really embarrassing, her cheeks were bright red.

"Did I say that aloud?" she asked cursing under her breath.

Savanna's brother Spencer came towards us and called out, "Justin's awake! But, uh, well, you should come see."

We all rushed up. Zane followed politely behind even though he didn't know who the heck Justin was.


	4. We Meet a Really Old Young Lady

Chapter 4: We Meet a Really Old Young Lady

As we rushed into the infirmary we found Justin sitting awake, with a healing Will Solace trying to tell him who he was and where he was. Justin looked freaked out. When he saw Zane his eyes widened.

"That's the kid from the dream!" he yelled pointing at Zane. "The destruction, the..."

"Chill man," Will said. "It was just a dream. This is Zane, you went on a mission to save him, he's friendly. Say hello Zane."

"Hi," Zane added awkwardly. "Thanks for helping to save me from my crazy monster roommates. We're going to be great friends!" Savanna sat down on Justin's bed and put an arm around him.

"I'm Savanna," she explained. "We fought side by side in the recent Titan war. You're like my closest friend. No offense Nico."

"None taken," I replied. "Yo J-man! I'm Nico and you're like my... friend! We were fighting together when the giants attacked camp. You enjoy magically detaching my nose!" Justin still looked really worried.

"I don't," he paused wincing in pain. "My arm kills." He grabbed his right arm which was covered in bandages and a sickly coloured green liquid, chimera venom. Will dropped some nectar onto Justin's arm and said, "I'm sorry. It's just an after affect of the venom, I think. It should wear off in a couple days, but recounting his life should speed up the process. You should probably leave him for a bit." We exited the room.

Justin loosing his memory had me worried, but what worried me more was the unbelieving look on Will's face as he told us his memory was going to come back. Savanna had left me and Zane to "use the loo" but had returned with puffy eyes and a runny nose. Zane seemed only slightly worried for Justin, but he was nice enough to try and reassure Savanna that he'd get his memory back. I practiced sword skills with Percy, but didn't do half as well as I could've I just couldn't focus properly. There was too much to think about, the random prophecy, Justin's amnesia, my Ancient Greek oral test, Chiron believing Zane was evil and the weird dust that attacked the camp.

We soon found ourselves on the outskirts of the woods. Savanna was still upset and Zane remained calm. As the sun began to set on the horizon, there was a loud snap from behind us in the woods. Savanna jumped so much she might've broken a record. I turned, but saw nothing, we all knew all sorts of crazy monsters lived in the woods, but none ever came out.

"What was that?" Savanna asked her eyes open wide.

"Nothing," I replied turning back to them. Then came the scream. A girl's scream young and clearly pained. It stopped, but loud moaning was heard.

"Someone's defiantly there," Savanna announced.

"I figured," I said, turning into the trees and followed the sound of moaning. I heard Zane start up behind me.

"Wait! What if…" Savanna began. "I'm coming!"

I burst through the trees to find a young girl, with heavily knotted dark brown hair, a dirt covered tan complexion and a ripped bloodstained toga. Blood was seeping out of wounds in her back.

"Savanna," I started urgently. "Do you have any ambrosia?" I heard her begin to search for something in her pockets. I crouched down next to the girl. Her head turned towards me and she screamed. She attempted to push herself up, but she was too weak. She started yelling in some foreign language.

"Nico," Savanna whispered. "She's speaking," she didn't finish her sentence. Zane sat down beside me and handed me a handful of ambrosia squares Savanna had given him. I pushed one into the girl's mouth and then Zane said, "She was speaking Ancient Greek." I looked at the girl who now had tears seeping down her face. In Ancient Greek she whispered, "No, you shouldn't have come here. You've put the world in jeopardy!" she screamed at the sky. "Happy now!" She looked back at me with deep brown eyes were locked into mine. "Go," she ordered weakly. She gently placed her hand on mine.

"It's ok," I told her in her language. She shook her head.

"Kronos seeks to rise again," she said.

"He was defeated two years ago now," I assured her. Savanna was too shocked to say anything. I began speaking English again.

"Zane help me take her to the infirmary," I asked. I knelt down and pulled one of her scarred arms over my shoulders. I felt her shudder as Zane knelt on her other side.

As the girl's arm wrapped around Zane's shoulders, the craziest thing happened. I felt as if I was being turned inside out. I was sucked into a blinding light and went spinning through the whiteness. My legs kept pulling me in random directions and soon enough they felt like they'd just done a mile sprint. The girl's arm was still loosely holding my shoulder and she was screaming wildly. Zane was yelling words his parents probably didn't approve of. The girl's arms fell away from me and I fell down into the world below.

I hit hard dusty ground, face first. Surprisingly I didn't feel any pain. I got up and observed my surroundings. I was in an area surrounded by giant metal walls. Heaps of guys wearing odd bits of battle armour and tattered, dirty and bloodstained toga-like clothing. Zane stood up and was repeatedly muttering, "No," to himself. The girl was lying on the ground again. Men around us were exchanging confused glances and muttering in Ancient Greek. I hurried back over to the girl and helped her sit up, ignoring the fifty or so eyes on me. Zane came down and gave the girl another of the ambrosia squares he'd been holding.

"Where are we?" Zane asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied. A man from the group stepped forward; he was one of the less-scarred, tougher, healthier looking guys.

"Strangers," he spoke in Ancient Greek. "How is it that you managed to get in here?"

"Uh," Zane began intelligently.

"We don't know," I decided speaking to the guy in Ancient Greek.

"Where did you get such fine clothing?" the guy asked. "More importantly, why did you come here?" We didn't answer. "Why did you come here?" he repeated. "No one comes into a war prison for no reason!" Zane was the guy who made up an answer.

"We were searching for my father," he replied in their language. "We were found and they knew we were their enemy."

"Your parents are Greek eh," a guy observed. "You don't look very Greek." He was looking at Zane, they could probably believe I was seeing as my mother was Italian and I'd inherited her Mediterranean complexion.

"My mother comes from a far way away," Zane explained. "I look like her." The guy who'd first spoken observed him cautiously.

"If we can trust you," he said. "What are your names?" Zane gave me a nervous glance, probably half wondering if we could trust these guys; I was thinking the same thing. I figured that if we didn't tell them our names they'd kill us, so I picked the better option.

"I am Nico," I introduced.

"I am Zane," Zane introduced.

"I trust them!" the guy announced. "I am Kastor, son of Draconicus, member of Odysseus's fleet, prisoner of war." He was probably sixteen and had a mop of tangled dark hair on his head. A bunch of others began stepping forward and introducing themselves. They were mostly between 20 and 30, but some were a bit older or younger.

Kastor walked over to the girl who'd brought Zane and me into this place and begun asking her stuff about being back early. She pointed to the almost completely healed wounds on her back and then to me. Kastor gave me a criticizing look before talking to her again. Soon enough she was able to stand and she walked over to a really freaked out Zane and thanked him. She then made Zane come with her over to me.

"I need to explain," she said. "Kronos has been attacking me in my dreams. It usually drives men insane, but he didn't give me half what he does to others. Him being the Titan of time he said he was able to take me to different times, which he did. I take it you were born millennia after this war. I'll find a way to get you back to your time, I promise. If it wasn't for that healing food you gave me, I would be dying right now." She smiled at me and I noticed that, if she hadn't have been a prisoner she would've been beautiful. "My name is Atlanta. I have, let's say special parents."

"I know what you mean," I muttered.

"Oh really," she challenged. "Is your father an army general?"

"No," I replied, while a victorious smirk grew across her face. "My father is Hades god of the underworld and the dead." Atlanta's jaw dropped.

"A demigod, I've never met another one except me!"

"Who's your mother?" I asked.

"I don't know," she sighed. "My father hated me the minute he saw me, he's a Trojan general. I was left alone, until I met my uncle. If you belonged here you would know the name, my uncle, Odysseus raised me. I've never been able to ask my father about my mother." Zane looked amazed, I was amazed. Odysseus had a niece? I'd never heard that, but I believed it. Atlanta then went on to explaining her half-brother who ran the prison and Kastor one of her uncle's friend's sons. She was doomed to spend life with him, but she thought he was nice anyway.

Men kept coming over to me and Zane throughout the rest of the day. One told us this was the tenth year of this war and another told us that the war was over a chick called Helen; people had taken to referring to the war as the Trojan War. Kastor brought us rations and told us a bit about what had happened in the war and also told us about Atlanta. He said she always tried to do things even if she was a girl. She joined the army, and became a general and was one of the best fighters; Kastor thought she'd make a great Hunter of Artemis. He also explained how he'd been put into this prison like so many others; it was the only place Greeks were within the walls of Troy.

So there I was, amidst a war I was born eons after. Zane looked as confused as I was.

"Nico," he said, catching my attention immediately as he'd spoken English. "Troy is east right?"

"Yeah," I replied raising an eyebrow.

"Demons like wars right?"

"Not as much as Ares."

"Dude, the prophecy is beginning!"

"Great soon we'll see plenty of destruction. Fun."

"We're going to find out who my dad is!" he sounded excited. "We'll probably wind up spending two weeks here and travel back to our time three days after we left."

"You're only confusing me."

"Well the prophecy is happening; visiting Troy will not be a holiday!" I turned to the ground.

"Well," I sighed. "We'll just have to try our hardest to live."

"Atlanta said she'd dreamt you'd come," Zane continued. "She also dreamt that I'd come and, how did she put it, 'unleash much destruction' why does everyone think I'm evil?"

"Zane I don't know. You radiate an unnatural amount of power maybe people just stereo type you as being evil because you have so much power."

"Yeah," he agreed. "I guess I just shouldn't let it get to my head." He started kicking up dirt with his feet.

"I have no idea how I'm going to sleep tonight," I announced. Zane yawned.

"Better start trying," he said, sitting down next to me. He yawned again and soon enough he was asleep sitting up. I was unable to follow his example.

As I sat in the night air a hand grabbed my shoulder. One of the twenty or so year olds was sitting next to me.

"Rest," he insisted in the ancient language. "You will probably need it. No harm will cone upon you tonight. The Trojans vowed no harm would come upon those in this prison tonight." He stood up and walked over to an empty area in the prison and lay down. Soon enough the place was full of sleeping men. I sat alone and wide awake, it sucked. I could hear a bunch of drunken guys singing outside the prison happily. The next two weeks, if what Zane predicted came true, would drive me insane.


	5. I Battle Zane to the Death

Chapter 5: I Battle Zane to the Death

I woke up not remembering sleeping at all. All I knew was that the ground in prison was not good for my back. Zane was standing next to Kastor and some other guy. They kept looking at the doorway as if they were waiting for something to arrive.

"And the dead wakes!" Atlanta's voice called over to me. If I spent two weeks in this place I thought I'd forget how to speak English. Atlanta came and sat next to me.

"Hi," I greeted rubbing dust off my face and out if my hair.

"Your friend is waiting for the morning rations to arrive. What was his name?"

"Zane."

"Zane," she repeated. "You might want to let him know you're awake. He seems really nervous about being here."

"Well see you." I pushed myself up and walked towards Zane, still staring at Atlanta as she begun walking away.

I'd only walked halfway towards Zane when loud metal screeching echoed across the area. A mob of prisoners backed away from something in the doorway. They then parted to reveal a phalanx of men wearing red togas beneath full battle armor all pointing spears and shields towards the surrounding prisoners. One guy walked in the middle of the mass of soldiers. He was around my age, which was scary, his helmet was made of gold and jewel encrusted, his face was scarred and rough and he looked a scary lot like Atlanta. He had two swordsmen sticking by his side and when the soldiers formed a circle of safety he removed his helmet and stayed in the centre of the circle. The metal prison doors slammed shut with a loud metallic thud.

"I seek Atlanta!" the dude in the centre called. I silently prayed that the guy wouldn't notice me, as I did not want to find out how they treated intruders. Atlanta stepped right in front of the front line of spearmen.

"Hello brother," she spoke calmly.

"You gave no right to be calling me your brother," he spat. "Guards, bind her. She won't escape torture this time." He smirked evilly as his men walked forwards and tied her hands, legs and arms together. The guy turned back to Atlanta, but something caught his eye.

"Who is that?" the guy pointed at Zane. "Why does he wear such fine apparel?"

"An unregistered prisoner," one of his guards said.

"Seize him!" the guy ordered. Zane drew his weapon and disarmed the first spearman that approached him. He stabbed another's shoulder with the spear sending him staggering back. A spearman snuck up from behind and went to stab Zane, but Zane was too fast for him. Zane twisted around and fought the guy. Unthinkingly I drew my sword and ran in to help.

"There's another!" their boss screamed clearly outraged. "Hurry up and capture them, their fate will be worse than death." I pushed another guy away, but then fell face first on the ground. A guy was standing on top of me. He ripped my sword out of my grasp and tied my arms together. I turned to see Zane forget that his knife was celestial bronze and attempt to stab a guard. The guard stood still and spent a while looking confused, just like Zane, luckily the guard had no one smash a club on his head, like Zane. I watched as Zane crumpled to the ground and was dragged away. A sudden burst of pain exploded on the back of my head and I fell into nothingness.

I awoke tied up to a pole in the centre of a Colosseum-like building. Hundreds of men were standing in the gallery all yelling and chanting. If this was some sort of entertainment for these guys, something told me they'd want a lot of blood.

Zane was tied to a post, much like mine opposite me. He was in some form of Ancient Greek skirt and sandals, scary thing was, I was too and I had no idea how I'd gotten them. Zane was struggling against his bonds and yelling Ancient Greek curses. His knives were gone, my sword was gone and so was my ring I'd stolen years ago.

I could hear Atlanta screaming from somewhere behind me. She was not happy. I couldn't turn around to see her, but anyone could tell she was in pain. Her cries suddenly stopped and the crowd started cheering. I feared the worst; our guide was most likely dead.

"Welcome my armies!" a strong voice greeted from above clearly not to me or Zane, "To our weekly tournament. I am your General Malagius and I will be your host today." I tried to look at the guy, but my bonds were too strong, I could barely move my shoulders.

"We have a treat today," announcer guy said. "Two intruders were caught breaking into our prison, so they must be punished." Laughter erupted in the audience. "These two fine young men will be forced to fight to the death and its winner stays on and fights the unbeatable!" Great, now if I kill Zane I'll die too and if Zane decides to kill me I'll be dead. It was a loose/loose situation.

"Make them fight!" Malagius ordered. My ropes fell to the ground around me and a small blunt knife was thrown on the ground near me. Zane was cut loose and was also given a blunt knife. Spearmen were retreating to the gates either side of the arena. I picked up my new weapon. Whoever died first would have a really painful death. I turned the blade over in my hand and threw it on the ground in distaste.

"Let us fight with our own weapons," Zane called at the grandest part of the gallery surrounded by silk curtain.

"What?" General Malagius yelled.

"If we're both going to die today," Zane continued. "And there's no possible escape from death, let us fight with our weapons. When we're dead, you can keep them." Zane glared at the announcer, his eyes seemed to be glowing, he looked way to angry and even a bit evil. Dark shadows swirled around his eyes; the sight was even scarier than Hades's helm of darkness.

"You get your wish," the general spat. "Give them their weapons." A spearman approached holding a sword and a knife. He dropped them far from our grasp and ran. Zane glared at me and smirked.

"First one wins," he said so only I could hear. "We've gotta make it look like we're going to kill each other."

I sprinted towards my sword and Zane's knife. I dropped down to my knees and skidded the remaining distance to our weapons. Zane's footsteps pounded after me. I scooped up my sword in one hand and Zane's knife in the other. Zane stopped. I turned to face him and saw him backing away with an amused look on his face.

"It's on," he taunted. He then skidded across the ground and kicked his knife out of my hand when he came within range. He caught his knife and faced me, smiling like this was the best thing he'd ever done. He anxiously circled me for a while, as if he wasn't sure where to strike. He leaped into the air and went to bring his knife down into me. I rolled out of the way. Zane nodded to the left and sprinted towards me swinging his sword to his right. I moved to my left just before he would've made contact. Zane hinted another couple of moves and it seemed like we'd be unnoticed until the cows came home.

Then things went wrong. Zane kicked up the dust with his right foot and we both charged each other. I swung my sword at his left and he dove to his right.

"Outrageous!" a guy yelled. "They aren't fighting properly!" A bunch of guys murmured in agreement. That was when I knew we were stuffed.

"QUIET!" General Malagius ordered. "As these two boys won't kill each other, it seems they wish to give us the pleasure of destroying them. Spearmen, archers at the ready!" A never-ending army of spearmen rushed onto the field. Archers were notching arrows into their bows and aiming at either me or Zane.

"ANNIHILATE THEM!" general ordered. A group of spearmen stepped forward. Zane gave me a worried look. Our weapons wouldn't even hurt these mortals! I rolled over to kick a spearman over and steal his weapon when an arrow flew over my head and hit the guy I was heading for. An archer begun yelling curses and I grabbed the dead guy's spear.

Zane had getting his weapon covered. He ran at the first guy he saw and barged him, knocking the spear out of his grasp and sending it into Zane's hand. He began stabbing and wounding a whole bunch of guys, much like I was, but we were fighting a loosing battle. Soon enough Zane and I were fighting back to back unable to back up further. We pushed guys back, but in our position it was impossible to do any real damage. I heard Zane's spear clang onto the ground. My own spear was the thrown out of my hands. I glared at the spearman closest to me. I took a deep breath and held it. I wanted the spearman to hurry up and kill me or the suspense would.

Then an arrow whizzed past my ear. The general began screaming.

"Cease this battle or the next one hits him!" Atlanta's voice yelled forcefully. I sighed and looked up at the general's seat. Sure enough just above his head was an arrow lodged in the top of his seat. I turned to see the place Atlanta's voice had come from. She was standing behind a locked gate on a bundle of ropes holding a bow with an arrow in it aimed straight at the general's head.

"My fingers are slipping!" she said.

"Return to your positions!" General Malagius commanded, his voice quivering with fear. "This battle is over!" I saw Atlanta drop her bow.

"Good choice," she continued. "I almost shot you, father!" She spat on the ground as she finished that last word.

"Remove this girl from my sight!" Malagius ordered. A guard jumped at her from behind and tied her up again. He moved the arrows a safe distance away. I watched as they dragged Atlanta away.

"Well," Malagius seemed to have regained his confidence. "That battle is over. Seeing as though you both lived you both move on to the next round. No matter, you'll be no match anyway; normal blades don't even hurt the hydra." Laughter erupted in the stands. Zane gave me a freaked out look.

"Percy beat a hydra before," I reassured him. "At least I think he did."

"Thanks!" Zane said. "We're so stuffed!"

A gate to the side clattered open. An ear-splitting roar erupted, well a lot of ear-splitting roars erupted. The green lizard-like creature had about a zillion heads each one with an ugly amount of toxic drool dribbling from its jaws. It was probably ten times taller than me. Its millions of heads were swaying around staring at people in the audience; it hadn't noticed me or Zane yet. One of the hydra's heads picked up a guy from the gallery and ate him. Everyone in the gallery moved back in a Mexican-wave like manner. The hydra began roaring again. Zane raised his knife and ran at one of the unsuspecting heads.

"No!" I screamed, this thing did not need another head. Zane sliced it off anyway. If hydras could laugh, the hydra started. It began hissing in short and high breaths. Zane stared at the hydra's bleeding stump as it healed over and began to regrow as two heads. A freaked out expression grew on Zane's face. I sprinted over to help him as the head reared ready to take a chunk out of Zane's skull.

I heard Zane take a deep breath as I readied to stab the hydra. Then another ear-splitting roar erupted, but not from the hydra. I turned expecting a head to be trying to eat me. Zane was roaring exactly like the hydra had and the hydra was responding. It started hissing and bowing its heads towards Zane. I stared in amazement. Zane hissed something back at the hydra and it lowered its front head. Zane stepped onto it at perfect ease and walked over the hydra's neck and onto its core. The hydra made no attempt to get rid of Zane; instead it allowed him to walk right on top of its heart. Zane then stabbed his knife into it and it turned to golden dust.

I stared, amazed, weirded out and scared. No one not even me, the kid who'd half been raised in the Underworld could tame a hydra, ever! Zane shock the golden dust from his clothes as it began floating away in the wind. The crowds were too shocked to applaud or boo. Zane looked up at the general, who was as freaked out as everyone else.

"Can we go now?" Zane whined. An anxious whisper broke out in the crowd.

"How did you do that?" I asked him quietly.

"I don't know instinct." He shrugged.

"Clearly these boys are too dangerous too hold with the other prisoners!" Malagius pointed out.

"Great," I muttered. "Let me guess, torment, torture and suffering."

"Clearly to make them come back to their senses we must torment and torture them, only much suffering will bring them down." Zane let out an amused breath.

"They, along with that pesky girl," Malagius continued. "Will be taken to the fortress!" That didn't sound like such a bad place, but by the way the audience laughed and gasped, I could tell it was worse than I could imagine.

"Guards! Bind these prisoners, disarm them and escort them to their new home." Malagius gave a self-absorbed grin and waved us an unfriendly goodbye silently.

The guards were cautious about approaching us. Sure they poured into the arena, but they all huddled against the walls. Malagius was screaming for them to hurry up, luckily for me they didn't.

"Fine!" Malagius spat when no response was given. "Archers ready your bows." I could hear the archers shifting into position from their podiums. Malagius glared at me one last time.

"FIRE!" he ordered raising his arm to add emphasis to his command. Zane ducked down shielding his head with his arms as a shower of pointed flying objects soared towards us. I heard Zane collapse. A small black feathered stick was producing from his neck. I could see his life aura still within him, but he lay dead still. There was a prick in my neck and then at least twenty on my back. The crowd commenced laughing and pegging things at us, but my eyelids closed before I could tell what they were.


	6. I Visit The Fortress

Chapter 6: I Visit the Fortress

I woke up as I was being dragged along the ground by two really tough looking guards. My knees felt as if all their skin had been grazed off them. My arms ached and my shoulders felt like dropping of and leaving the guards carrying my arms. In front of me was a pair of guards carrying swords at the ready as we pushed through the heat of the day. The paved floors were starting to graze my feet. Buildings lined the empty streets. Archers were training at one, swords and shields and other weapons were clashing together in another, and a raging fire was heard coming from a forge. I had cuts and scratches all over me and my body was stinging like never before.

I soon noticed that we were following the path to a ten or so story building, with huge walls surrounding it. Its gray walls had no sign of life within them and there were no windows.

As we came to the high surrounding walls another guard approached the group and one of the two leading guards gave him a piece of paper. The guard yelled something about opening a gate and the huge thick wooden gate towards my right opened. My guards thanked the other and dragged us through the gates. They closed behind us with an echo, leaving us in eerie silence.

That was when I heard the screaming, not women or children, but grown men, pleading for mercy and forgiveness. They sounded pained. I could hear other men yelling at the screaming men for, or about various things. I did not want to go in. I started trying to stop the guards from dragging me any further forwards, but my legs killed and these guys were built for dragging people. They yanked me forward more and almost dislodged my shoulders. I got dragged up the entrance stairs with my knees burning like crazy.

As the door guards opened the bulky doors I was enveloped in a wave of silence. The guards seemed to notice my shock.

"The walls are soundproof kid," one explained as he took a fiery torch from the door guards. The hallway smelt of rotting flesh, there were puddles of, who knows what everywhere. The stone passageway had no light whatsoever. The guards' footsteps echoed in the empty hallway. The doors creaked shut behind me. The only light was the faint glow of the torch.

I was pulled up countless crudely made stairs and dragged through millions of passageways and turns. Soon I was led to an open metal door. The guard with the torch ignited a torch in the room whilst my guards raised me up and swung me into the room. I landed painfully face first in one of the mysterious puddles. I immediately jumped up and tried to run back out. All I got was a locked door. I let out a scream of rage.

When I figured that moaning by the door wasn't doing me any good I examined my surroundings. It was an empty cement-like room still dotted with puddles. A small woven blanket laid on the ground the corner nearest the torch. The room smelt like a cross between pee and something dead, which made me extremely cautious of where I stepped.

I sat myself down and looked at my knees. Blood dripped down from my knee and covered my shins. Skin was peeling off from the edges of my knees and the rest of my legs were grazed and cut. It made me shudder.

I soon found myself leaning against the only dry corner in the room and drawing on the ground with blood from my knees. Then there was a loud rasping knock on the door and it burst open. A big guy with a matted beard, long oily hair, blood dried across his face wearing a red dress that only reached his mid thigh fell onto the ground next to me and the door closed a second time. The guy smelt like dead people. He roared at the closed door and pounded it for ages.

When he finished having his tantrum, he started peeling the dried blood from his face and eating it. I sat on my mat watching his every move. If he decided to go cannibal and eat me I stood no chance. He stopped eating the blood and turned to me. He started speaking some weird language I didn't know. He soon figured out I didn't understand him and he started trimming his toenails - with his teeth.

My prison buddy was soon asleep and snoring insanely loud. I was glad he was asleep, he'd been driving me crazy with all the weird things he'd been doing. He had eaten the blood that had dripped from my knee to the ground. I was still leaning on the wall and I knew trying to get some sleep wouldn't work. I sat in boredom for hours.

My roommate woke up after a piece of bread had been slid under the door. He'd eaten it all after he punched me in the face to get me away from it. My nose was dripping blood, but I was too tired to care. I continued an uneventful day or so utterly bored.

I woke to loud banging on our door. I hadn't remembered falling asleep, but I was glad my roommate had been asleep at the same time. My roommate was sound asleep and snoring as loud as ever when the door opened. I hoped to see Zane or Atlanta busting me out, all I got was a couple of guards who chained me up and left the big bloodthirsty guy in my cell alone.

We walked up stairs and through hallways. There were no disgusting smelling puddles in this part of the fortress, but there were plenty of rotting bodies. It was clear that I was walking to my death. We turned up another flight of stairs to a door. I felt doomed to die in that room. The door opened before i got there and I was escorted inside.

There was a wooden pole in the centre of the room, otherwise no furniture or permanent surroundings were in the room. Whips, metal rods, knives, bones and all sorts of other things like that covered the wall. A fire was roaring violently in a hole in the wall. An important looking man in armor stood next to the wooden bar chuckling to himself. He had a severely scarred face and he had huge ripped arms. His eyes were empty and cold. Suddenly I longed for the company of my blood-sucking roommate. My guards linked my chains to the walk and left.

The door reopened and another two guards walked in with Atlanta in chains following them.

"Nico!" she screamed with relief. "Zane's been..." A guard slapped her in the face making her shut up. She was linked to the wall next to me and her guards left. She looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"We thought you were dead," she explained.

"Well he will be by the end of the night if you're not careful," the other guy warned. "Sorry let me introduce myself." He spoke with false innocence. "I am Thero," he introduced. "Don't bother introducing yourself. I don't like to know my victims' names." He gave us an evil smirk.

"If my father wants me to give him the Greek's plan again," Atlanta started. "You're not getting any information out of me!" She spat on the ground.

"Which is why you're here," Thero spoke gently with an evil light in his eyes.

"What? So I don't say anything?" Atlanta asked. It didn't make any sense to me either.

"You can't torture the truth out of me," she declared.

"I know, we've tried that remember?"

"Because I was going to forget."

"So why am I here?" I asked stupidly.

"Leverage," Thero explained. Then it hit me. I cursed under my breath. Atlanta had figured out what was happening as well. Her eyes widened.

"No!" she yelled. "I'm the one you want! What will hurting him do?"

"Loosen your tongue," Thero spoke too casually. Atlanta looked at me with fear in her watery eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I swore on the River Styx not to tell." Tears were streaming down her face.

"It's ok," I promised. "I can handle it." I wasn't half as confident as I sounded.

"You shouldn't have to do this. If I had..." She broke down. She fell to her knees and started shaking. Her breaths were uneven and I could see her tears hit the ground and soak into it.

"Aw how cute," Thero didn't do anything to cover up the sarcasm in his voice. "Now girl, this is what happens when you don't do as you're told." He undid my shackles and gave me another of his evil smiles. He tied my hands together and then tied them to the wooden bar in the centre of the room.

"You ready," Thero asked, picking a whip from the wall.

"Bring it," I taunted. Only too soon did I regret saying that. I felt Thero's shadow loom over me. I tried to calm myself down.

"This is going to be fun," Thero claimed. Atlanta started screaming.


	7. My Dad Keeps His Promise

Chapter 7: My Dad Keeps His Promise

I heard the whip crack, but that didn't hit me as hard as the pain. I felt my bare back being ripped open and then the sharp stinging pain begun. The whip hit me again. I bit my lip. I was not going to let Atlanta see my cry out in pain so soon. I could feel my eyes watering. The whip kept beating down on me. Atlanta screamed my name. The pain got through to me. I wailed in agony. The pain was beyond any I could've imagined. There was a pause in the whipping and I started panicking.

Suddenly there was a burning sensation on the back of my neck. I was screaming again. I swear I could feel the heat go through to my toes it was that hot. When the setting pain stopped I had tears in my eyes and my voice wouldn't work properly. I wanted to drop dead and die. Then indescribable pain hit the open wounds in my back. Even with soundproof walls every other prisoner probably heard me scream. Atlanta was screaming for Thero to stop, but he didn't.

After what felt like hours of endless pain, (turns out it was only five minutes) my vision blurred, my head felt light and ringing begun in my ears. Another blast of hot metal hit my back and I hit my head on the wooden beam and fell.

I didn't wake up as fast as I normally would. I felt intense pain surging through me, and warmth. Something warm and soft was holding my shoulders. I couldn't see and my ears were still ringing, but I could feel warmth. My head, back, neck, legs, arms and nose all seemed to throb with pain.

A moan escaped my mouth, and warmth drowned my upper half.

"You're alive!" I could make out Atlanta's voice saying. "Praise Hades he's alive!" A delicate hand brushed my face. I could hear Atlanta talking to someone else in the room. A colder hand felt my forehead. Zane's voice began speaking. I tried to open my eyes, but pain still overpowered me and all I could see was a blur of red.

Time went by. Blurs kept my vision impaired and a faint ringing kept me from hearing everything completely. A hand gripped mine.

"If you can hear me squeeze my hand," Atlanta instructed. I managed to grip her hand tighter and she laughed with relief.

"I can't believe you're ok!" she screamed.

"Calm down," Zane's voice was speaking. "He's still not great. If you go too crazy you'll only make him worse." He was half-right, I felt that if I just lay there I'd die as well.

"We need to get out," Atlanta decided.

"How?" Zane inquired, "Nico's in no state to sit up let alone break out of prison. We need to help him first. When do rations come?"

"You want food at a time like this?"

"No! I was thinking along the lines of burnt offering to Apollo or someone."

"Oh, ok. I don't know."

After listening to Atlanta and Zane debate and talk for ages, my vision cleared up. Yeah, my body still throbbed like hell, but seeing was an improvement. It was then that I could see the blood Atlanta and I were covered in.

"Is..." I begun, but Atlanta shushed me, I was grateful for it too, it felt as if someone had rubbed sandpaper down my throat. Blood covered Atlanta's previously bloodstained dress and Zane's hands. I had the sickening feeling that I was lying amidst it.

There was a loud bang at the door. It opened and a tray of "food" was slipped in. The door slammed shut immediately. Zane ran to the rations and began humming a hymn to Apollo. He picked up the tray of stale bread and off raw meat and took it to the fire. When he finished humming his hymn he whispered, "Oh Apollo god of medicine and doctors, accept our humble offering. Please help our friend to recover for the long journey ahead. Our offering may be small, but it's all we have." Zane tipped the tray into the fire. The fire blazed higher. Zane fell back in surprise. My back felt as if it had started melting.

I saw Atlanta's jaw drop as she saw me squirming against the pain. The blood all over her hands, face and dress was all falling to the floor and flowing back towards me. It felt like I was getting ten thousand needles at once in the same spot. It stung, but didn't make me want to scream in agony. Then the intense pain came. I moaned as pain soared up my back and neck. Then as fast as it had started - it stopped.

Atlanta was staring at me in awe; Zane was looking from where the puddle of my blood had been to me and back again.

"That," he breathed, "Was cool." I started to sit up. I rubbed my bare back. Instead of feeling the long ripped gashes that should've been there, there was only a faint sealed dent running perfectly along my spine.

"You can hug him to death now Atlanta," Zane suggested and Atlanta gave me a warm rib-crushing hug. After she released me, Zane helped me to my feet, gave me a quick hug and sighed.

"Well," he sighed. "We should probably find a way out before the guards figure out you're alive and come to torture me."

"That's probably a good idea," I replied.

Zane broke the lock open easily with a metal rod from the wall. Atlanta armed herself with a couple of knives as did I and Zane carried a whip. We started walking down the dry part of the corridor, only noticing as the door closed and locked behind us - that we didn't have any light. Sure I could see and sense my way around fine, but the others couldn't. I took their arms and guided them down various steps and turns until the corridor was damp and littered with dead bodies.

A flickering orange light melted around the corner and harsh voices were laughing at their own jokes.

"Just skewer the dead one just to make sure," one guy said.

"I'll remember that," Thero's voice replied.

"And torture the golden haired one nice and slow."

"Sure thing," Thero murmured a hint of excitement in his voice. Next to me Zane slipped on a small puddle but regained his balance with a heavy thud on the ground.

"You hear something?" the non-Thero guy asked. Two silhouettes burst out from the corner holding swords and spears at the ready. Another guy emerged behind them holding the fiery torch. We were too far away for them to see but if we didn't move fast, we were screwed. Zane nudged my arm. He pointed towards a bunch of dead people one the ground.

"I see something," Thero announced. "Three of them. Dead man decided to go for an evening stroll." The guys stared advancing. I silently pleaded to my father to help these dead guys everywhere form an army of undead warriors for me. Something cold and sharp caught under my chin.

"Hello," Thero mused, his spear against my chin, "Ready to die a second time?" The floor started rumbling, Thero didn't notice. A paling hand gripped Thero's neck and pulled him down. The deformed rotting head of a dead man appeared above him. Thero started screaming, it was very satisfying to watch. He dropped his spear as dead men started attacking him and the guards. Soon three dead men and an army of undead men was in front of us. Atlanta was clinging to my arm clearly under they impression the undead guys would attack us next.

"Clear the fortress of guards," I ordered and the undead guys tromped off.

Atlanta released my arm.

"How do you do that?" she asked.

"My dad?" I guessed. She walked forwards a bit and started jumping on Thero's dead body.

"Chill," Zane said. Atlanta stayed bashing Thero for quite a while until a dead guy came up the stairs. He was missing an arm and a foot and he wore only a loincloth. His empty eye sockets looked at me and his head bowed.

"I think that means we're free to go," I suggested. We picked up a guard's torch and ventured through the prison.

Sure enough all the guards we passed were dead. Most had either suffered severe beatings or getting strangled by dead men. Atlanta occasionally kicked a dead guy, which made me think how unlike Savanna she was. Savanna would've been depressed that I'd asked for so many people to die, let alone that they had, whereas Atlanta seemed to love it.

I pushed Savanna out of my mind. She'd been there when we got abducted and it'd now been what, a week? She probably thought I was dead. She probably thought we vanished forever.

We came to the entrance, I would say the big metal double doors, but they were covered by a wall of dead people. Some were chewing the gates, others trying to rip it apart.

"They can be dead again now," I thought and an avalanche of zombies fell to the earth. Some were still tangled in the gate, but that was the least of our worries.

"Now how do we get out?" Zane complained. "There's no way out! You've stuffed us Nico!"

"Get over yourself Zane," Atlanta spat. "At least we made it this far so far."

"When I rescued you from your school Zane," I started, "I asked my father to send me a mini earthquake - turns out I made one. If I tried hard enough I could probably bring down the gate."

I put a hand to the ground and let its energy run through me. I concentrated hard on the built up energy within it waiting to burst. The ground started pulsing in rhythm with my own. Instinctively I smashed my fist onto the ground and the world shook. The gate shattered and fell. The fortress' walls and floors cracked and some were heard crumbling above.

I fell to me knees in exhaustion. Zane helped pull me to my feet and I half ran half got dragged along with him.

We escaped the walls without hassle. The guards had all freaked out about the earthquake. We ran with the guards who had been protecting the outer walls of the fortress away. But unlike the guards when the earth stopped beating, we continued running in search of a safe hidden spot.

We reached a less military controlled part of the city and broke into an abandoned house (which was pretty easy seeing as there wasn't even a door). Atlanta found a rug in one of the corners and caught up on some rest. Zane sat with me in the main area. He absently drew pictures in the ground.

"I'm going to go get some food and thank my dad for his help today," I announced. Zane nodded slightly.

"See you." I exited the house.

Whoever lived in the building was most likely raised by farmers. They had a small garden with various herbs, vegetables and fruits. I picked a bunch of things and lit a fire on a stone slab covered in soot. I poked the fire experimentally with a stick until the fire flared up and engulfed my stick in flames.

"To my father, Hades," I said tipping half my armful of crops into the fire, Demeter would've hated me.

"Thank you for watching over me." I watched the fire's golden tongues lap up the food and send a pleasant aroma into the sky. I listened to the fire as it crackled contently for a while. It was when the drunk neighbours' began singing that a realized how tired I was and extinguished the flames and entered the house.

Zane was still staring blankly at a wall. I gave him half of the crops I'd scabbed and ate.

"Any luck on figuring out you're dad?" I asked trying to remove the awkward silence around us.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said turning away from me.

"You found out who he is right?" I asked trying to figure out why he'd decided he didn't like the topic anymore. Before responding he forced a yawn.

"I'm tired. I need some sleep." He walked over to another corner and curled up. It wasn't like Zane to be so secretive. I decided to rest also and attempted to sleep on the floor.


	8. We Play Follow the Leader

**Sorry it took me so long to upload, I've been busy and my email has some serious problems. So yeah to anyone reading, here's the next couple of chapters.**

**Chapter 8: We Play Follow the Leader**

Things went wrong in the morning. Turns out, we forgot that people probably lived in the house.

We woke to the terrified scream of an elderly lady. I had jumped up and tried to calm the lady, but when you have a knife strapped to your waist it's sort of hard to say, "I mean no harm" and look convincing. When the lady ran, we did also - in the opposite direction as none of us were eager to visit the fortress again.

We ran through the city looking as suspicious as guys who'd just robbed a bank. Few paid us any attention, but unfortunately guards were patrolling the streets. We all chucked a couple of knives at our pursuers. Once mine landed in a chink in the armour where the shoulder-piece connects to the breastplate, but it as it turns out - torture knives are blunt.

We kept up running. Turning where we could and trying to find some way out. The walls of Troy were easy to see, but hard to find. I was somehow at the head of the pack and was choosing the way we went. There was only no hope when I decided to turn left and trip over a fruit stand.

More guards surrounded a metal wall. I tried to turn around and run but guards were advancing on us from behind. So I did the natural thing, sprint left and hope they don't chase us. Obviously that plan didn't work. We were now trying to outrun an army.

My legs were burning, I had the biggest stitch of the century, I could barely breath and my rush of adrenaline was wearing off. Atlanta collapsed first. It probably didn't help that she hadn't eaten since two days before. I heard guards pick her up and take her away. I desperately wanted to go help her as she'd helped me so many times. There was nothing I could do to help. It'd only get us in deeper trouble. I turned around to look at her as Zane and I sprinted forwards. She was thrown over one guards shoulder and he disappeared in the crowd.

I faced our path again. Zane was catching up to me. Which either meant that adrenaline was finally pumping through him or I was slowing down. I didn't like the second one.

Something heavy tackled me. I landed flat on my face with around one hundred kilos on my back. Half of the weight lifted and rough hands pulled my arms behind my back. I was grateful for the break from running, but knew now we'd have to come up with another crazy escape plan. Itchy ropes tied my wrists together and soldiers hauled me to my feet.

I got up in time to see guards tackle and bind Zane. We were escorted to the metal wall and shoved into a gate.

"We're going to have to tell the general about you," one guards said as he threw us in.

"Was that a threat?" Zane asked, "You're the worst threatener I've ever seen!" The guard just scowled and slammed the gates shut.

"Great," Zane sighed, "Now we need another crazy breakout plan." The dirt beneath us was hard and dusty. The walls, the dirt, something seemed scarily familiar about this place.

"Nico? Zane? Atlanta?" a familiar voice called from behind. I pushed myself up and was relieved to see we were back with friendly company. Kastor's surprised face was staring at us. He helped us to our feet and got us to explain where'd we'd been while Atlanta ate a bunch of other guys' rations.

"The fortress," Kastor said clearly amazed, "You don't know how lucky you are to be alive."

"Actually - I think I do," I said, "I almost died! Like literally."

"He got tortured because I didn't give them our plan," Atlanta added.

"Did you tell them?" Kastor asked.

"No!" she pretty much yelled.

"Good. Do these guys know about it?" He gestured towards us.

"No."

"You should probably tell them."

"Yeah," Atlanta stared at the ground and began drawing a horse in the ground.

"I was going to be directing the construction," Atlanta sighed turning to Zane and me, "We planned to build a giant wooden horse capable of carrying over one hundred men. We wanted to hide inside the horse and get some soldiers to deliver the giant horse as a gift to the Trojans and have them take it within their indestructible walls. Then we'd attack from within, open the gates and Agenenmon's forces would rush in and join the battle and we'd've won."

"You say it like won't happen," Zane added miserably.

"Well, the Trojans sound like they have spies informing them about everything. They'd know by now."

"Well they don't!" Zane blurted, "You guys like wi..." I put a hand over his mouth.

"They don't need to know their future," I whispered, "Or they'll get overconfident and-"

"And what?" he asked, "If they try to change the future the outcome would be the same because this has already happened."

"This is starting to confuse me."

"This is the past, our actions have already occurred."

"But travelling through time could alter the past."

"No it would've happened in the past. If you travel into the past your actions there occur in the past and therefore you can't alter the present in the past."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"What are you even talking about?" Kastor asked. Atlanta stood up.

"I'll explain," She said to him, "Come."

Zane kicked dust over Atlanta's horse picture.

"I just do," he said sounding angry, "Maybe it's like you and knowing when people are dead. It's in your genes."

"Yeah, but what god is the god of time travel?" I asked.

"I don't know!" he answered quickly and bitterly. His breathing quickened. He glared at me and I swear time froze. He stared at me with his golden eyes glowing slightly. He took a deep breath in and turned away.

"I need to pee," he decided walking away.

Hours past. It was midday by the time Zane talked to me again.

"Hi," he greeted. He sat down on the ground next to Atlanta. Kastor was quizzing me about the future and asking if he had a world-famous myth about him.

"Shame," he said, "They need a story about a young handsome humble warrior."

"Minus the humble," Atlanta smirked.

"Little bit. So what sort of weaponry is there? I know you can't improve on spears and shields much, but, you know."

"We have guns, a huge variety as well." When I was halfway through explaining them to him the gates began creaking open again. Kastor cursed under his breath and turned away.

As spearmen formed their ranks to protect their leader Atlanta stood up.

"Hey brother, I haven't seen you in forever!" she called. The guy in the centre of the formation scowled at them.

"Any other volunteers?" he asked. No one moved. I had no idea what was going on but I stood up next to Atlanta anyway. She looked at me and gave a silent "thank you".

"Any more?" the leader called, "Well you," he pointed at Zane. "Stand up you'll be coming." Zane hesitated and then stood. The leader scanned the prison.

"Round up seven others," he ordered.

Guards approached and captured Atlanta, Zane and me. Another guard got Kastor and we were bound by soldiers and dragged out. Six other prisoners were also amongst us. Everyone held their heads low and didn't make a sound as we trudged out of the prison.

I exchanged a confused glance with Zane. He was still being silent. I nudged Atlanta.

"What the Hades is going on?" I asked. She took a deep breath out but didn't look up.

"The Trojans have some 'pets'," she whispered staring at the rocky ground we walked over, "Telekhines, you heard of them?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine ran into some once."

Atlanta nodded. "They unfortunately took advantage of their given luxuries and eat nothing but human flesh. So once a week ten prisoners or ten people the generals don't like, get sacrificed to them. So now we join them unarmed."

The road seemed everlasting. I heard each footstep, savoured each breath not knowing when my last would come. An older guy in front of me was shaking wildly and had tears and sweat dripping from his chin. Zane glared at the ground kicking a black across the road. Atlanta was walking next to Kastor and gripping his arm, tears of her own were falling. I let cool air rush through my lungs and let warm air rush out. A spear prodded my back so I picked up my pace. I could hear my head throbbing and feel my heart beating violently.

"Here we are," a soldier announced. I released a shaky breath.

We were on a set of cliffs in the middle of nowhere. The evening breeze blew in our faces. The guy who had been shaking the whole journey fell to his knees.

"Spare me!" he cried.

"If you go first the pain won't last as long," the head guard insisted. Two guards picked the crying guy up and threw him into a hole. There was no visible end to wherever it lead. The guards got us to line up.

The first guy's screams echoed in my ears. No end was heard. The next in line started crying. Soldiers pushed him in. Atlanta glared at the leader.

"I hate you," she muttered.

"I do too sister," he replied smirking.

"At least you're coming to the underworld with me!" Atlanta grabbed her brother and voluntarily threw herself into the hole. I heard myself screaming her name. Kastor head-butted one of his guards, the other shoved Kastor dangerously close to the hole. Kastor regained his balance and threw his guards in. He spent a moment too long staring at the spot where his guards had fallen. One of my guards kicked him in and he fell screaming.

I watched on as others were thrown into the hole. No one tried a last minute escape. No one wasn't shaking. A man in his late thirties begged for mercy only getting him slapped across the face causing him to fall in. His screams followed him.

Zane looked at me. We were the last standing. Zane gave me a forlorn look, a single tear seeping from his eye.

"Goodbye," he whispered. I sagged as I watched him fall. A cold feeling fell into my stomach. I stared down the dark unforgiving hole. I turned to my guards. I gave a final sarcastic remark.

"I'm so glad I met you," I gave them all the smile I could manage and dove headfirst into nothingness.

I could feel the wind in my face and the cold spray of seawater. I didn't scream, I didn't dare open my eyes, I just enjoyed the last sensations I'd have. I could smell the sea. I could hear the air whistle past me as I fell. My last seconds couldn't have been better or worse. Zane was dead. Atlanta and Kastor the only allies we'd been able to find in this time were dead too. Savanna my closest friend would be left in the dark along with Kyle and a Justin who didn't even know me. Those haunting thoughts strangled my mind.

My world seemed to slow as I slipped into the hands of death.


	9. Telekhine Trouble

**Chapter 9: Telekhine Trouble**

My lungs were burning. My fall slowed. I was drenched. I began floating upwards. I wasn't dead not yet.

I pushed through the water. My head broke through into complete blackness, I could see though I knew it was dark though. I was in a cave. In a small deep pool. Grey stalactites dangled dangerously low from the cave ceiling. A rocky shore lay just ahead of me. Rocks and boulders were piled up in organized piles and places.

The broken, bleeding, dead body of the first to fall lay floating absently on the black water. His bones were broken in a million places and many had ripped through the skin. He'd broken the water for us so when we landed we wouldn't die. Hopefully my father went easy on him.

I turned to my friends. Kastor was helping Atlanta swim somewhere, but they were in total darkness. Zane was on my left putting all his energy into trying to float. The soldiers Kastor had dragged in were lost and their leader was struggling to stay afloat with his heavy armour. The other men were all paddling around clueless.

I had to help these guys.

"Everyone!" I called, "Come to my voice. We need to stick together. I can see land."

"There is none!" one guy yelled.

"He is young he has better eyes," another said.

"He's a child of Hades," Kastor panted. There were a couple of gasps.

"Yeah, so I can see in the dark. So come to me." Zane was instantly at my side. Some men doubted my words or had really bad ears and swam away. Kastor and Atlanta made their way over. Trojan general guy had escaped his armour and was also swimming towards me.

I lead them to shore and everyone dropped onto the rock.

"We live!" one of the remaining two random prisoners cried.

"Praise Zeus!" the other exclaimed. I coughed.

"And Hades!" he added quickly. I was the only one standing - then again, I was the only one seeing. Atlanta was clutching her leg and whimpering.

I stared at the daunting tunnel ahead. There was no way visible way through it. I sat down on the ground and watched. If telekhines were down here there was no way they wouldn't notice us soon.

Footsteps clonked against the ground. I felt everyone take a deep breath in as firelight oozed around an unseen corner.

"I don't hear any splashing," a rough voice said, "If they forgot again I'm going to destroy those Trojans."

"The Greeks are working on that," another voice said.

"If they hand us another batch of dying prisoners..."

"Shush, I smell something." Something sniffed loudly.

"Something powerful," the other remarked.

"Reminds me of Master Kronos."

"Wait... I smell a disturbance. Mortals. Demigods, four or so."

"Well today's looking brighter already. I do think we should keep the demigods here for ourselves to eat. Nice and slow. That'll teach their parents."

I pulled Zane to his feet and dragged him towards the silhouettes.

"What are you doing you idiot?" he whispered.

"You can tame a hydra," I kept my voice low; "This shouldn't be a challenge for you."

"That was luck!" he insisted, "I won't be able to do it again!"

"You won't be able to breathe again if you don't try!" He looked at his feet. He sighed.

"Kay, I'll go talk to them."

"What?"

"That's what I did last time. That's what you want right?"

"Uh, yeah. Go ahead."

He strode out into the firelight. I'd moved the other sacrifices behind a pile of rocks. Zane approached the telekhines. He bowed gently towards them.

"Good day," he greeted. The telekhines stared. One dropped the torch on his foot.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"Good day to you also master," the other said, bowing as he spoke.

"Do you have a forge down here?" Zane asked.

"Yes Master only the finest in the land," one replied.

"Would I perhaps be able to see it?"

"No!" one stormed.

"Yes!" the other yelled.

"But our food!"

"It can wait. We have never had so much as a word from our old master. Our brethren would be delighted to meet such an honourable person."

"Uh," Zane sounded really confused, "The pleasure is mine."

"Follow!" the one who'd dropped the torch ordered.

I felt the light dwindle away. Zane was gone. Delicate fingers gripped my hand.

"Nico," Atlanta started, "You and Kastor should go make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Why?" I asked.

"I can tell he's going to do something insane."

"Well that'd be a great idea," Kastor said, "If I could see!"

"I'll go alone," I decided.

"No you won't!" Atlanta ordered.

"Yes I will." Atlanta grunted with disapproval. I pulled my hand away from her and walked down the tunnel.

"Nico!" Atlanta squealed.

I followed the one route tunnel down a while. There were no forks, no passages branching out, just one direct route. Loud drunken laughter erupted from a cave wall. I put my ear to it. Heck there were telekhines there, but how had they gotten in. There was a disruption in the earth somewhere behind me and I ran towards it. A passageway was opening. I stopped behind a fallen rock to see a blazing inferno within the single opening in the wall. The wall slowly rose until it let its heat spill out.

Drenched in sweat, I got my first proper look at a telekhine. Like Percy had once said it was like someone had tried to mutate a seal with a Doberman and a person. They had feet that were half-foot half-flipper and a face that had the pointed appearance of a Doberman, yet the features of a human. It had overly long human arms that were dripping with water even though it'd just been in the inferno room. It also had a seal's tail where it would normally have a butt, which only made it ten times uglier.

It was pulling a wheelbarrow, overloaded with a bronze coloured liquid. It was clearly much heavier than it appeared because the telekhine was grunting as it pulled the wheelbarrow along. It walked straight towards the opposite cave wall that was now rumbling and descending into the ground as the previously opened passage closed.

I did what instinct told me to. I sprinted at the open passage, punched the telekhine in the face, tipped his over heavy wheelbarrow on top of him and hid behind a stone bench in the passage while I listened to the telekhine struggle hopelessly against the crushing weight of the melted metal in his wheelbarrow.

This room had a bunch of moulds everywhere and random furnaces throughout the room. Clearly these guys had gone for the industrial-factory look and covered the walls in rusted metal and put random tables covered in unnecessary cogs and bits of metal everywhere. They'd built stairs that lead to higher surveying bridges across the room. Telekhines were everywhere hammering metals into shape pushing wheelbarrows around and doing other stuff you'd do in a forge.

I saw Zane talking to three telekhines on one of the bridges, two of which looked thoroughly annoyed. Finally one pushed the un-annoyed guy off the bridge and landed as a crumpled pile of mush on the ground. No one noticed. Zane had the most polite look on his face and kept dismissing the telekhines when they bowed to him.

I looked around; telekhines were absorbed in their metal-working. It was pretty easy to run to the closest table and grab a celestial bronze sword. Celestial bronze was so different to Stygian iron. I couldn't feel the power of death and loss running through my new sword. I didn't like the blade, but I had nothing else to fight with.

I climbed up the steps to the bridge Zane was on. I stayed out of sight and harm's way. No one noticed me, well not at first anyway. I crept behind the telekhine behind Zane that was doing the least talking. I sliced him in half and he disintegrated on impact. His friend screamed and jumped off the bridge with Zane. They started running. I flung myself off the bridge just in time to notice, the telekhines had started hurling chunks off flaming metal and a bunch of other weapons I would've never considered throwing.

I hit the ground with only a burn on my left wrist. I winced and sprinted in the direction Zane and his new friend had disappeared from. I could hear things whistle past behind me and things being engulfed in flames. I suddenly wished I was Percy or Leo - a little fire resistance would've really helped. I saw Zane turn a corner before emerging from around it again. He was covered in gold monster dust.

He ran up to me an angry expression on his face. His eyes were glowing again and soon his whole form was growing brighter.

"STOP!" he screamed. The telekhines stopped. "You date hurt my apprentice!"

"Apprentice?" I asked him.

"Shut up," he muttered.

"Master," one telekhine spoke bowing towards Zane, "Your apprentice has killed one of our friends. It is only fair we kill him." Telekhines nodded in agreement.

"You will not hurt him," Zane ordered, heat beginning to radiate from him. A telekhine winced and darted away.

"He is a demigod!" another telekhine argued, "Your father would want him destroyed! Unless you have turned your back on your father, you would want him destroyed."

"Who is your father?" I whispered urgently. Zane stopped getting brighter and glowered at me.

"Leave that subject alone!" he ordered. I punched him in the face.

"We need to know!" I yelled. Zane held a hand to his nose and slid back.

"He hurt our master!" a telekhine screamed, its eyes wide with hatred "Destroy him!"

I ran forwards and then slid across the metal floor. Everything missed that round. I jumped up and sprinted up to a bridge. A fiery spear hit the bridge and fire spread across the ropes suspending the bridge in the air. I flung myself off the bridge and got hit by ten or so red-hot bits of metal on the way down. I felt a piece cut my cheek. I hit the ground and accidentally smacked my hand on the ground. I yelled and continued trying to avoid the millions of things being thrown at me. Something heavy smashed into my back and I was forced to the floor. A telekhine stood on top of me laughing as he carved something into my back with a sword. I screamed and struggled until the telekhine stopped carving on me. He laughed ferociously.

"Nico!" Kastor's voice yelled, "Get off him freak!" I heard something metallic scrape across a table and sure enough, a pile of gold dust replaced the telekhine that had been on my back. Kastor started muttering something about weapons not hurting them, but he soon got over it and started killing telekhines.

I got to my feet in time to see my other two surviving prisoners run in and start killing telekhines. Atlanta and her brother hadn't entered. A wave of despair washed over me. I desperately hoped nothing had happened.

Kastor had found another sword and was leading our telekhine destroying ranks. I caught up to him and began slaughtering telekhines effortlessly. Kastor was putting up a crazy good fight. Percy'll kill me for this, but Kastor was fighting better than I'd ever seen Percy fight and Kastor was a starving prisoner.

I turned another telekhine to dust.

"From behind!" one of my sacrifice buddies screamed. Sure enough tens times more telekhines poured the passageway. Kastor motioned for me to stay where I was before he jumped away and ran to meet the oncoming wave of enemies. I held them off pretty well, but there were only thirty or so remaining in my area.

I raised my sword to slice another telekhine in half. Kastor started screaming in pain. I whipped around to see Kastor screaming on the ground half engulfed in flame. He was writhing violently. I roared and sliced through ten telekhines and ran to Kastor's side. His body was red and his face was blackened. His nose and lips were burning away and suddenly Kastor stopped moving. Telekhines erupted in laughter. I looked at my fallen friend and charged at the army of telekhines.

"No!" Zane yelled. He landed in front of me and gripped my arm. He roared and telekhines froze. My mind blurred. Our other sacrifice friends froze in mid battle. The fires that lit the room went out.

"What the Hades?" I asked.

"Come on!" Zane yelled pulling me along, "Do not let go of my arm," he instructed. I nodded as we ran out into the pitch black cave.

Zane led me through the cave. He took me to the spot everyone was supposed to be waiting at. Only Atlanta and the Trojan dude were there. They were frozen. They looked like exquisitely painted stone statues. Atlanta was frozen in a mid-limp towards the forges. Trojan dude was pulling her arm.

"What's going on?" I asked Zane.

"I don't know," he lied.

"You're the worst liar," I told him. He let go of my arm and then I found my arm being held by Zane again. Atlanta had appeared at his side with a pained expression on her face. Trojan dude was now on his knees ten meters away from his position an instant ago.

"Zane what in Hades is happening?" I asked.

"Just don't let go of me and walk," Zane ordered.

"Just tell me what's going on!"

"I don't know!" Zane stormed, marching forward.

We walked through the caves at a slow pace. On impact with the water from the fall Atlanta had hurt her leg and was limping along. Zane didn't utter a word and his eyes were still glowing. He forged ahead with Atlanta clinging to his arm. Finally she said something, "Where are the others?"

"They're fine," Zane lied hastily.

"Kastor," I began, "Got burned to death by a telekhine. He saved my life though."

"He's dead?" her voice was cracking.

"There was nothing I could do."

"He's dead," Atlanta repeated sniffing. Her sobs began echoing in the silence.

"Great," Zane muttered. I wanted to punch the guy in the face. He wouldn't answer my questions, he wouldn't stick around to save anyone's butt except his own and mine and he didn't respect the fact that when someone close to you dies you usually cry.

"He was trying to help you guys right," Atlanta whimpered, "When he died."

"Yeah, he did," I replied. We walked in silence for a while, only Atlanta's sniffs and sobs were heard.

"You're the son of Hades," Atlanta said.

"Yeah, yes I am," I said.

"You could make sure Kastor goes somewhere nice in the Underworld right?" I didn't like that question. If I tried to interfere with someone's judgement Dad'd have a fit. I didn't want to depress Atlanta anymore so I lied, "Yeah. I'll make sure he does." She sniffed and whispered a word of thanks.

The silence that followed only gave me more time to stew in my confused emotions. My anger towards Zane swelled, my sympathies for Atlanta were exploding, my guilt for the death of Kastor was weighing me down. My mind kept flashing to his burning broken body howling with pain.

My mind went off on a tangent and I found myself thinking about Bianca. I remember standing with Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson and seeing her shimmering image before me. I'd been too confused too ask her all I'd wanted answered, but eventually slowly those answers had come to me. I missed her. I wished she could've been here to lead this mission instead of me, she was always better at those sorts of things. She'd know how to calm everyone down lower the tension - I didn't.

Zane stopped suddenly. There was a steep rough pathway ahead of us. The faint glow of the moon crept through the passage.

"You can let go now," Zane instructed. I released his arm, being eternally grateful that Savanna, Justin and Kyle weren't there to point out the fact I'd been holding a guy's arm. Screeches began echoing through the cave. We began our climb. Atlanta grunted with every step and I had to help her get over the rockier parts, but otherwise the climb seemed like nothing.

When the ground flattened out again, there was a metal archway in the wall. It was a small archway; I had to get on my knees to get through it. I got on my knees and shuffled through. Zane followed and then I pulled Atlanta through.

We found ourselves in a forest. It wasn't dense, but it wasn't just a couple of random trees. Needles of moonlight pierced through leaves and found their way to the ground. Millions of stars dotted the sky. There were so many more than there were back at camp. The grass was soothing against my bare feet. The archway we'd come through was an opening in a hill. A metal door was attached to it. Zane closed it and it locked into place.

As Atlanta looked around her tear-stained face lit up with hope, she even managed a smile. She sat herself on the ground and started rubbing the grass.

"We're safe!" she announced throwing a fistful of grass into the air. She was laughing hard, seeming to forget about her leg. She turned to me with a beaming white smile on her face.

"The Greek's base camp is just over there," she pointed slightly to our left. I felt a smile crawl up my face.

"I don't know about you," Zane muttered, "But I would love to spend a night away from a bunch of people trying to kill each other."

"OK," Atlanta agreed, "I know a river up north a bit. There's a clearing in the trees. It's a perfect place to spend the night." None of us gave any signs of disagreement, so she limped away happily with us at her heels.


	10. Artemis Breaks a Promise

**Chapter 10: Artemis Breaks a Promise**

I fell to sleep instantly on the soft grass. So getting to sleep wasn't the thing that bothered me for once. It was my dream that did.

I was standing beside Justin, outside the Big House. Savanna leaned on his shoulder and had tears pouring down her face.

"They're dead," she whispered. Justin just looked blank.

"Should I feel bad?" he asked. Savanna sobbed. Justin took that as a yes as a solemn expression crossed his face.

"He's been gone a day," Savanna said, "The prophecy Zane told me about is probably going to kill them. I should've stopped them. I should've helped them. Do you think Percy's had any luck trying to find them?"

"No," Justin answered blankly. Savanna wrapped her arms around him. Something stirred inside me. I didn't like watching Savanna obsess over Justin.

"I just want him to be OK," Savanna said, "But he's not. I had a dream last night." She sobbed some more and didn't say anything.

"He's gone," she muttered, a tear dripping onto Justin's shoulder. "He's gone."

There was a bright flask of light that had me temporarily blinded.

"Zane?" I heard Savanna ask. "No you can't! JUSTIN!" The light receded and Savanna was on her knees screaming to the air - Justin was gone. She slammed her fists into the ground and started sobbing.

I woke to the sound of Atlanta screaming. I jerked upright and ran to her side. Somehow Zane managed to ignore her cries, he was sound asleep. Atlanta was where I'd last seen her, only she was shivering and writhing like she was having a seizure or something. I ran over to her. Her eyes were shut tight and sweat beaded down her face. I squeezed her arms and shook her. She sat up, head-butted my face and gasped for air. I stumbled backwards.

Atlanta grabbed my wrist.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I was having a dream and,"

"Kronos," I cut her off. She nodded.

"He said I was going to be betrayed by one of you," she said, "Why?" she asked me like I knew. She stared at me in wait for a while, pressuring me to answer.

"Uh," I tried to come up with something to say, "Um, it was Kronos. He was probably lying."

"Probably," she sighed.

"Why were you screaming?" I asked merely out of curiosity and I suddenly wished I hadn't. She frowned.

"I - uh, saw uh, something really bad happen."

"What?"

"Uh, someone got hurt bad."

"How?"

"They just did OK?" She said clearly angrier than anticipated.

"OK!" I held up my hands as if surrendering.

The moon was still high in the sky and the trees were swaying in the calm breeze. There was a stream that cut through the trees that gurgled along cheerfully. To admit, the scene was pretty peaceful, it seemed to remove the stresses that I would've held close. My dream about Savanna and Justin, Atlanta screaming, Kastor's death. Here the pain seemed to be nonexistent; my worries seemed to be small inconveniences that really didn't matter, like spilling a drink.

I gazed at the crescent moon. Atlanta rested her head on my shoulder.

"When will this war end?" she asked her voice nothing more than a whisper, "You've lived in the future. You know, don't you?"

"It'll be over before you know it," I replied, putting a comforting arm around her. I heard her sigh quietly.

The night seemed perfect. It was so warm, so relaxed, so uneventful. Perfect. I tried to remember the last time I'd felt so peaceful. I couldn't. I just sat with my arm wrapped around Atlanta and let her head rest on my shoulder.

The wind picked up for a moment. Atlanta smiled as the cool breeze washed over us. I smiled at her smile. Then the moon seemed to shine brighter and brighter. Soon it was unbearable. I shielded my eyes from the light and Atlanta did the same. I closed my eyes as the wind became an unwanted gust.

The wind stopped and I felt the light exit. I opened my eyes. Instead of me being alone with Atlanta and Zane's sleeping self, an eight or nine year old girl stood in front of us. She had auburn hair and brown eyes that glowed in the moonlight. She had a small pointed nose and a face that was giving Atlanta a disapproving glare I'd once been given.

"Lady Artemis," I greeted, entirely confused by her arrival.

"Do I know you?" the goddess asked regarding me with an even more hateful glare.

"Uh, not yet." Artemis gave me a thoughtful look.

"Artemis," Atlanta repeated in awe.

"Yes my child," Artemis said.

"What?" I asked.

"What, what?"

"You called her, 'My Child' that's something you'd only call your child."

"And..."

"You're a maiden goddess. You don't have any kids."

"Di immortals" Atlanta cursed, like she'd just realized something important. Artemis gave her a pleasant smile.

"Don't think of it as a bad thing, Artemis said to Atlanta. Then the tiny cogs in my head began turning and I figured it out.

"You're Atlanta's mum?" I asked, "You're Atlanta's mum!" I repeated.

"Well done," Artemis mocked.

"What the Hades?" Atlanta said, if possible finding it harder to take in than me.

"But you like hate guys," I said.

"Artemis fell in love with the most arrogant, evil, cruellest man ever?" Atlanta remarked.

"Your father was much nicer when he was twenty five," Artemis said.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes."

"But Dad hates me!"

"Things can change in a couple of years."

"But he always hated me!"

"Maybe he felt guilty he'd made me break my oath."

"Artemis liked a guy," I murmured in disbelief.

"Get over it!" Artemis ordered, "Now if you don't mind, I am going to borrow my daughter for a minute."

"What?" I asked.

"Good," Artemis replied and dragged Atlanta away.

I sat myself against a tree finding it hard to think of a goddess who appeared eight years who'd I'd met when I was ten, who was the sworn enemy of mankind, as Atlanta's mum. I knew the gods usually broke oaths (take Percy and Thalia's fathers for example), but one who looked eight and loathed everything about guys. I tried to catch parts of the mother to daughter conversation Atlanta and Artemis were having, but all I heard was Atlanta disagreeing with things her mum said.

Atlanta returned to me alone around an hour later.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi," I replied, "What'd she want to tell you?"

"Uh, she wanted to heal my leg and she asked, well more begged, me to join the Hunters of Artemis." Man I hated that group, Bianca had died only days after she'd joined and when I first met them they all acted as if being male was some kind of contagious disease.

"Did you?" I asked.

"Hades no! How could I help my country, avenge Kastor and..." she stopped herself, "Well, I couldn't do those things if I joined the Hunt."

"Not really, no."

"You seemed to recognize Artemis when you saw her, have you met her before?" I sagged. When I'd met Artemis I'd been ten, I'd been alone with my sister for years, Artemis had taken her from me and then my sister had wound up dead. I didn't like Artemis at all.

"I'm sorry!" Atlanta said, "Did something bad happen?"

"I had a sister once," I told her, "She joined then Hunt and died days after."

"That's sad," she said, but she clearly seemed unable to take in the pain that could cause, "I'm really sorry."

"That was four years ago," I said, "Well four years ago from the time I wound up getting abducted from my time." Atlanta sighed.

"If I have any more screaming fits, please wake me up," she said yawning. She lay down on the grass and started breathing softly.

I didn't manage to get back to sleep again that night. I only came out of my half-asleep daze when Zane yelled next to my ear. I jumped, Zane laughed.

"I'm gonna kill you!" I told him, diving on his feet, making him fall face-first into the ground. I laughed at his fail and begun walking away. Then something hit my back making me stumble forwards. Zane had thrown a small rock at me. I aimed at his stomach and pegged the rock back at him.

"I hate you sometimes!" Zane wheezed after the rock partially winded him.

"Breathe some air you're being delusional!" That earned me a glare. I smirked victoriously and gracefully tripped in a root and fell into the river.

"I hate you Zane!" I called. He just laughed at me. I climbed out of the water and realized just how much dirt a good spray of water gets rid of. My skin looked three shades of olive lighter than before. I splashed water on my face and washed any dry blood that remained on me off. Zane came over and decided not to kill me and jumped into the water. Atlanta jerked awake as water splashed over her. She saw Zane and started laughing.

So we spent the morning doing nothing really. When we'd finished trying to climb to the top of a taller tree than each other (Atlanta won), Atlanta started leading the way to the Greek's main camp.

"It's a long road," she explained, "If we keep moving we should make it by the evening."

The road was long, but easy. For once we weren't running for our lives or trying to escape captors. Zane seemed a lot happier today, though Atlanta thought he only gets upset when something to do with his father came up. We didn't run into anyone or anything, but soon enough the sun was setting.

"We're almost there," Atlanta announced.

"Will there be proper food there?" Zane asked.

"I don't know if I'd call it 'proper', but there will be more food."

"Well anything is better than a bit of stale bread and off water," I said.

"I had a crazy dream last night," Zane said.

"Me too," Atlanta and I replied in unison.

"But mine was really weird," Zane decided, "We were back in the twenty-first century and Atlanta was there too. It was night and it was cold. That Savanna chick was there and she was talking to a kid from the Demeter cabin. Everyone was happy; there was some sort of celebration. I walked to Chiron and gave him some sort of clock. He didn't trust me and he threw it back at me, but I let it fall and I walked away. Then I appeared near some mountain and there were people worshipping me; well that's what it looked like. And then the mountain blew up. Then it started shifting again and there was a lot of destruction. It was weird." Atlanta and I stared in silence.

"I had a dream about tortured souls, it wasn't nice," Atlanta said.

"My dream was just weird," I lied. I didn't really want to replay Savanna screaming in my mind.

"But my dream was like real!" Zane said, "It was really there happening!"

"I know what you mean," Atlanta agreed.

"Us half-bloods get it all the time," I told him. He turned to his feet.

I could smell a mix of smoke and body odour ahead. We were close. Someone jumped out in front of us holding a sword to my throat.

"Woah!" I yelled. The guy began talking.

"Who are you and why are you-"

"Dareios!" Atlanta cut in, "It's been weeks!"

"Atlanta?" the guy asked.

"Yes now, please get your sword away from my friend's throat."

"Yes mam," he removed his sword.

"Now let us through."

"Yes mam," he stepped away, "Should I alert the camp about your arrival?"

"We'll be there soon enough," Atlanta replied. Dareios muttered another "yes mam" and we walked past him.

Quite quickly the trees thinned out and we were standing at the edge of a huge camp. Tents were up everywhere, small controlled fires were spread throughout and tired looking guys were sitting around sharpening swords or cleaning bloodstains off their armour. There was one tent positioned in the camp's centre and official sounding voices were coming from it. A giant half-completed wooden horse was positioned closer to the trees at the far end of the camp. The area stretched for miles.

Someone saw Atlanta and ran up to us.

"Atlanta!" he called, "Praise Zeus you're alive!"

"Good to see you," she replied politely.

"Who are these two?" the guy asked.

"Nico and Zane, they've earned my trust, don't kill them."

"I assume you'll want to tell your uncle Odysseus you're back, and explain these two guests." He scowled at us.

"Yes please," Atlanta replied.

"Follow me."


	11. We Meet Odysseus

**Chapter 11: We Meet Odysseus **

We stopped outside the central tent with the important voices coming from within. Atlanta's old friend went in to see if we were allowed in. We heard the guy cough and then asked if it was an alright time to intrude. A couple of guys murmured about "OK" and Atlanta's friend poked his head out and nodded. I lifted the tent's flap and walked in first.

A low table was in the middle surrounded by a bunch of important looking guys in armour. Otherwise the tent was bare.

Atlanta trundled in after me and one of the guys stood up.

"Uncle!" Atlanta cried as she ran up and hugged the guy.

"Atlanta," he whispered, "I assumed you weren't dead. You just wouldn't allow that." Atlanta smiled at the guy in his thirties. They both had the same smile and nose; his eyes were darker and narrower. He had close-cut black hair on his head and a tall, strong build - just like I'd pictured Odysseus.

When Odysseus released Atlanta other guys in the tent gave welcome remarks.

"Who are the young strange looking boys over there?" an older guy asked.

"Hey!" Zane protested.

"These are my uh, friends," Atlanta said, "Nico," she gestured towards me, "And Zane," she gestured towards Zane.

"They don't look like they're from here," the older guy remarked, "How did you come across them exactly?"

"They were foreigners in the prison," Atlanta explained, "We've been through a lot together the past week and if you don't trust them you can't trust me."

"Why are his eyes gold?" another guy asked pointing at Zane.

"I have a name you know!" Zane stormed. Muttering erupted.

"Can we get over their appearance and ask more important questions?" one guy in the room yelled. He looked as if someone had thrown a bowling ball at his face and only his extremely pointed nose had recovered.

"Kastor," the guy continued, "My son, have you heard from him?" I turned to the ground, that image of Kastor burning to death had left a deep scar. Atlanta's smile just faded to a frown.

"You haven't heard from him," the guy sighed.

"No," Zane said, "We heard from him. Isn't Kastor the guy the telekhines burned?" That earned him an elbow from either side.

"What?"

"Your son is dead," I said.

"I wouldn't be here without him," Atlanta said.

"How would you know if the telekhines killed him?" the older guy accused, "No one emerges from there alive."

"We've had a crazy amount of close calls the past few days," I said, before Atlanta recapped everything that'd happened since the month before in this land.

We ate a proper meal that night and slept in something made for sleeping in. Zane and I were put in a tent full of the younger fighters. Most had multiple bruises and scars but all of them had a million questions to ask about our travels and where we lived. A bunch of guys wanted to see the scars I gathered from being tortured, and I found out I had a burn on the back of my neck shaped like a Minotaur. Finally the guys got bored of the red lines along my back and we all drifted to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning a new white tunic, much like everyone else's was resting on my sleeping mat. I was happy to get rid of the stupid skirt I'd been wearing the past few days. An average breakfast was served and then a small force, including Atlanta went to pretend to fight Troy for a while. One of the guys from my tent, Leon I think his name was, got me some battle armour and a regular metal sword.

I was showing Leon some tricks Percy had taught me at camp when Odysseus came over.

"Nico," he called, "Could I speak to you for a minute?"

"Sure," I said walking over. I'd continue thrashing Leon later.

"My niece Atlanta has told me about where you are actually from."

"Do you mean America or the future?" I asked.

"What's - never mind. The future. I forbid you to tell anyone of the future and of your father."

"She told you that too?"

"You can't trust very much with Atlanta. Anyway. I actually wanted to offer you something." My mind flipped through the bajillion things that could be coming.

"Yes," I said.

"Has Atlanta told you about our plan to infiltrate Troy?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well I've been told you can cause the earth to tremble at your touch, cause dead to rise and fight and lives to depart from their bodies with your thought."

"Well I don't know about that last one, but yeah."

"If we had you on our leading lines during the infiltration of Troy we would have a major advantage. I have convinced the other generals to let you have a place in the horse, if of coarse you accept."

"And I wouldn't accept because..."

"Great!" Odysseus hit my back, "I shall go tell the generals. Goodbye for now." He waved and jogged back to his tent.

"What did he want?" Leon asked as I returned.

"He just wanted to..." my sword was flicked out of my hand and Leon caught it.

"Ha! I win! Surrender!" He pointed his sword at my neck. As if! I flicked my leg out and launched it at him, tripping him over and making him face-plant into the ground. I snatched my sword from his grasp and we continued fighting.

It was late in the evening when the army returned. The tired soldiers ate and left for bed. Atlanta came over to say hi. She brandished a bloodstained sword and was smiling way too much with all that blood smeared across her face. She told us she'd had a pretty successful battle, none lost on our side ten on the other. She skulled the water beside her before she had to go to some general's meeting. Zane came over soon after, he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks and he looked as miserable as the Underworld. He didn't utter a word while the other soldiers laughed and joked around us.

"Odysseus talked to you?" I asked him. He just murmured something and turned to his food.

"Why would you ask that?" one of my war buddies asked, "Odysseus says nothing to no one unless they're an impossibly good fighter."

"Or you're his niece," another guy added in a cough. A couple of guys laughed.

"He spoke to Nico," Leon said struggling to pronounce my name.

"What'd he want?" a guy asked.

"To see if I wanted to go horse riding tomorrow," I said. There were amazed stares and mutterings of, "cool" and "impossible".

"But you're like fourteen kid," a guy who looked thirty or so protested, "Any of us could fight better than you!"

"Wanna bet?" I jeered.

"Ooh," a bunch of guys said. The guy stood up.

"OK," he said, "Five drachmas I win."

"Ten," I said.

"You're on kiddo."

"But isn't that unfair?" one guy said, "Aren't you invincible Achilles?"

So that's how I wound up fighting the invincible Achilles. The other guys had made a circle around us and were making bets of their own.

"Such a nice young face," he said, "Shame I'm going to deform it." I felt my heart sink. How was I supposed to fight him and get a sword to his heel at the same time?

"That's a nice heel you have," I said making some guys laugh at how pathetic it sounded, "Shame I know your weak spot." Achilles' face grew red, I laughed. He charged.

I dodged to the side and spun around before he had a chance to try and attack again. He jabbed and I pushed his sword aside easily. Our swords clanged for ages. He knew the disarming trick and wouldn't let me get close to his feet with my blade. Around us guys were yelling, "Achilles" or "Nico", but it sounded more like, "Achilco".

"You're good kid," Achilles muttered, "But I could beat you any day."

"You're alright," I told him, "Not the best I've seen, but..." He slammed his sword towards my left. I skidded forwards on my knees and pressed my sword gently against his heel. I smirked up at him. Guys laughed. Achilles looked distressed.

"I win," I said. He glowered and muttered, "I surrender," and he dropped his sword. Coins were exchanged along with angry glares.

I was hoisted up onto a couple of guys' shoulders and we paraded around the circle. I got a lot of amazed and angry glares, but none bothered me. People cheered me on for the rest of the night before the generals went off at us and told us to shut up. When my head hit the pillow I fell to sleep instantly.

The next day was very much like the first, only no half-immortal guys challenged me to duels. Plenty of other idiots did though. Zane stayed out of sight and eating at a table full of people was normal.

When evening came Atlanta returned to camp and said we hadn't been so successful today, over a hundred had died and another three hundred were fatally wounded. An important general then announced that the Pony Plan would be put into action the next night.

There was a lot of excitement the next day. Zane even told me he was also riding in the Trojan Horse. My tent friends wished me luck before getting organized into their ranks. Atlanta was unseen throughout the day and I sat around all day with the others who would ride in the horse waiting for the evening.

Atlanta sat down next to me her smile beaming on her face.

"In an hour we'll be tearing through the gates of Troy," she said.

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Do you know what's up with Zane?"

"Nup."

"I heard you beat Achilles."

"Wasn't that hard."

"If you're trying to sound modest, you're failing."

"Why would I want to do that?" I said. Atlanta laughed.

"You must miss your old world," she sighed, "Your old friends, everyday life. Was life easier then?"

"Way too much so," I said. She nodded.

"Was there someone in your life you ever loved?" she asked. I just gave her a strange look and her ears went red.

"I didn't mean to say that," she added awkwardly, "I, uh, have to go organise my men." She stood up and walked away leaving me in silence.

**Please review. I want to know where I could improve because, heck I could improve! It'll take a while for me to upload the next part. Sorry! Tell me if you like the story or what. Thanks for reading this far. **

And just wondering if you guys would like to read a complete rip off of Percy Jackson called Peter Johnson and the Toilet-Paper Thief? Just wanted to know. Review and say something! 


	12. We Ride in a Giant Horse

**Disclaimer (I spelled it right this time): I don't own Percy Jackson or any of the characters, like Nico, I don't own the Trojan War (you can give that to Helen)**

**Next chappie! Hope you like, it's a bit war-ish, a lot of death, but hey Nico's a son of Hades it's sort of expected right?**

**Chapter 12: We Ride in a Giant Horse**

The last of the sun's golden rays were escaping. The purple sky was slowly turning black. Orange light reflected off the edges of the thick clouds in the sky. It was the perfect night for battle.

I ascended the wooden ladder that had been hastily carved that day. I entered the dark horse and climbed towards the neck as others began following me in. I sat myself down where the horse's mouth was. Atlanta and Zane found their way to my side.

"We are officially the youngest people in this horse!" Zane announced.

"And the most powerful," I added, "The only demigods here are us."

"I don't know," Atlanta said, "There's a son of Ares up front."

"But, I'm ultra powerful me," I said, it reminded me of something Justin would say. Atlanta laughed and turned to the ground.

The horse started rumbling and slowly inching forwards. Silence enveloped us. I found a crack in the wood and peered through. I watched the seemingly endless trees go by. Soon we were outside the gates of Troy.

Huge grand wooden gates. No man could ever open them alone. The wood on the lower half was polished to perfection; no such care was taken on the upper half. Corpses littered the sides of the paved road. We pulled to a stop.

The horse shuddered and rolled forwards a tiny bit before it finally halted. I heard our men release the animals that had pulled it here before running into cover. The huge gates creaked open loudly.

General Malagius was escorted through the gates. He examined the horse and spat on the ground.

"They've taken my son," he said, his voice distant like a whisper, "They brainwashed my daughter, they've left parts of this grand city in ruins, they've killed so many of our men and this is all they give us in name of their surrender?" Someone was angry.

"Sir," one of his guards addressed, "Do we bring it in?"

"Yes," Malagius said, "Bring it in!" More men emerged from the gates and started hauling the horse into the city. They were groaning about how heavy it was and how much it smelt like BO.

Soon we were in the heart of Troy. Some of our men slipped out and quietly killed each guard before any alarm was raised. Then we started splitting into small groups to get to the gate of Troy.

It was easy enough for me to shadow travel short distances around the city in the dark night. I had been told to leave my group by Odysseus; that had been the easy part of his plan.

I came to the familiar metal wall. There was no movement anywhere near it, but there was life in and outside it. I shadow travelled to the entrance. I woke up a few guards, but a sword to the heart silenced them. I poked my head back out and checked for any other guards. The street was quiet and empty. I searched a dead guard for the keys to the door. I cut the fallen guard's belt off him and took the keys from it.

There was only one key on the ring. A big metal bulky one, in fact a sword probably could've unlocked the door just as well. I stuck the key into the lock and twisted it. It squealed as it scraped against the metal, I cursed under my breath. I pushed the heavy cold door open and let it creak loudly.

The prisoners who'd been asleep only a moment earlier, were all sitting up and rubbing their eyes. I stepped into the prison and raised my hands as if surrendering.

"Isn't that one of the kids who got sacrificed?" one guy asked the person next to him.

"OK guys," I started, feeling pretty powerful with all those people staring at me.

"We're sieging Troy tonight!" I told them raising my voice for emphasis, "Tonight we are taking down the walls of Troy! And we're getting you out of this stupid prison." Everyone erupted in cheers and "huzzah"s.

"Onward!" I called and turned back to the door. I marched through the door with an army at my heels.

Sneaking around a military-patrolled city with a gang of fifty or so men is not one of the easiest things I've done in my life.

Most of the guys were stealthy, but in a group we couldn't stay hidden long. A young guy on a wall clearly saw us, but hurried away without raising any alarm, clearly he feared for his life. When we had gone halfway through the city we ran into trouble.

Our scout rounded a corner and disappeared into the night. I waited for his signal. He came back panting.

"What?" I asked immediately.

"There's a barracks just around that corner," our scout said, "We won't be able to sneak past it. There are around five hundred men in there and another three hundred Calvary men in the stables next to it."

"Is there another way?" I asked. Scout shook his head.

"It'd take the rest of the night and we'd have to pass the fortress. I don't like our chances, but I prefer this way. We won't die so hopelessly." My group whispered in anxiety. An older man spoke up.

"What do we do Commander Di Angelo?" he asked. I liked the title he gave me "Commander Di Angelo" not the pressure he gave me with it. Fifty against eight hundred was a stupid idea; the eight thousand at the city centre was stupider. I looked over my group. All eyes watched me hopefully.

"I need four other fast and agile men," I announced, "I have a plan."

The barracks and stables were impossible to miss. The stench of horse manure was the first thing that came to me, then the noise. Eight hundred men mingling. Most were inside the brick building, but there were still a lot of them hanging around outside. I heard Scout gulp next to me.

"We can't kill them all," he whispered. The others in my small troop muttered something in agreement.

"We just need to distract them for a while," I said, "We'll do better distracting them from the inside, it'll draw their attention away from our band."

"And how do we get in there?" another guy in the troop asked.

"The roof," one guy suggested, "It'll have an opening into it on the far side. If we skirt around the edges, we should be able to climb up that tree, jump to that roof and climb into that roof. We'll have a good aim from there, but we'll be pretty venerable." I gaped at him.

"How the Hades are you so smart?" I asked. He shrugged. "Well you lead on." We skirted around a building.

I scrambled up the tree last and was pulled onto the roof. A window was parallel with our position, light danced in it. The barracks was a fair distance away for a jump, but we had no other plan.

Scout was first to jump. He leaped over the edge of the building and caught the edge of the small window built into the barracks. The light made his shadow rise above us. He hauled himself up and gestured for the rest of us to follow.

I was last to jump. I took a running jump that managed to get me to graze my fingers on the windowsill. One of my men caught my arm and helped me in.

We surveyed the area. Heavily armed, strong, scary mobs were everywhere below us, talking loudly and generally having a good time considering most were about to die.

Scout armed his bow. I gazed at the crowds below. There was so much life in one place, so much power. I could practically see the life auras dancing around inside them. The lives seemed to be calling out, beckoning to be released.

I heard Scout release his arrow and I was brought out of my power trance. That was weird. I'd never been able to sense lives without trying or without them being on the verge of death. They'd seemed so solid, like a being almost. Like a thing, not the translucent vapour they were supposed to be. I felt as if I could've reached out and removed one from its body.

I heard the arrow plant itself in someone and saw a Mexican wave of people stepping back from one spot in the room. Odysseus words relayed themselves through my mind "cause lives to depart from their bodies with your thought." Maybe that was a trait of some ancient children of Hades. Trying to sever life from body seamlessly seemed like a great idea.

A Trojan soldier below jerked his head up towards us. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try stealing lives.

"I really want this guy to die," I thought quickly, the only reaction I got was the soldier's fat finger pointing up at me and a drunken voice yelling, "Ambush!" Some soldiers threw spears and swords at us, luckily most of the guys were drunk and were doing more damage to theirs friends then us.

Scout fired another arrow. A sword knocked one of my men to the ground, I did the stupid thing and jumped down from the ceiling beams after him.

We landed ok, but there were three hundred guys looming over us all coming down with knives. Everything happened in a second, it felt like millennia. I could see them in my mind plunging their knives into my flesh, tearing my soul from body, my life aura fading inside me.

Then it hit me. A sword sliced through my armour and I visualized the men surrounding us with their life auras fading. Men collapsed in a domino like formation. They were dead. The barracks were silent. I'd only made the thirty men around me and my friend die.

Another guy advanced on us. With evil contempt I made his life fade. I stood up. Smiling. Drunken with power. I felt so alive.

"If you move," I threatened, "You'll be dead." The terrified looks on the grown men's' faces was priceless. The look on their faces told me they'd do whatever I wanted.

By my sides my arms seemed limp and useless, I had the feeling you get when you're just so angry you want to punch something, only there was no anger. Pure glee. That's what it was.

I stole another wave of life practically glowing with darkness that was surrounding me. My mind was throbbing in an intoxicating way. Possibilities flew through my mind, if I could take life from body, could I give life to body?

"Di Angelo!" Scout yelled from above, "Can we get out of here?" I was instantly brought from my trance. Power stopped pulsing through me. The sudden change made me dizzy. I looked over the hundred or so men I'd mindlessly killed.

A migraine erupted in my skull. The army could tell I wasn't as powerful now.

"GET HIM!" someone screeched. Pushing pain out of my mind I gripped my friend's arm and shadow-travelled to the ceiling beams.

"What was that?" the guy asked as he found himself above again.

"They'll figure out where we are soon enough," Scout said, "I think they've been distracted enough."

I nodded. My eyes felt heavy. I was tired beyond belief I wanted to curl up on the beams and sleep. But I stood up and jumped out the window.

The cool night air half woke me up, landing heavily on the ground did the rest. Scout started running away from the barracks and the rest of us followed. Our team was no where in sight, I decided they were safe.

Scout led us through narrow and empty streets and made us scale walls to get through the centre of Troy undetected. The gates were close to the area. Scout strode through the city like he owned it. He knew every street, hiding place, prison and every guard's nightly patrol routines.

We reached the gates shortly after the rest of the prisoners. There gates were surrounded by our Greek army, it seemed stupid that the Trojans didn't keep any guards around here. The prisoners had small reunions amongst friends in the hundred other Greeks before everyone got back to guarding and opening the gates.

Zane and Atlanta were guarding an entrance to the gates with about twenty other men. They seemed to be in the middle of some important conversation. I walked over the stone ground to meet them.

"Hey," I said.

"Told you he's not dead," Zane muttered.

"I never said he was dead!" Atlanta argued.

"Well Ares kid over there did," Zane said gesturing towards another guard.

"So is this all you've been doing?" I asked, "Standing around holding your swords out?"

"Yup," Zane said.

"Fail! I just led a massive prison break!"

"Stab anyone important?" Atlanta asked jokingly.

"I didn't stab anyone," I answered. But I have killed around a hundred men who didn't deserve it, I thought. I really didn't want to share my experience in the barracks with anyone yet. It made me feel like a psychopath, and I'd enjoyed the moment!

"Shame," Atlanta sighed, "First to stab someone tonight gets a drachma!"

"Can I stab Ares kid?" Zane asked.

"Zane, he's on our side."

"He annoys me." Zane scowled at one of our allies.

"Zane, it didn't hurt you," Atlanta scolded, "Get over it."

"He still tried," Zane spat.

"What?" I asked.

"Son of Ares over there," Atlanta began gesturing to the ally she'd pointed out before. "Tried to kill Zane, but missed and-"

"He didn't miss," Zane mumbled, "It was like celestial bronze through mortal, like trying to cut water."

"He missed," Atlanta insisted, "It's like three thousand years before you were born it couldn't affect you less." Zane then muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Yes it could."

Awkward silence followed. We stood and waited; waiting for something. It was boring. It was cold and when you're wearing pieces of metal that are either room temperature or cold it's not fun standing around. Zane spent most of the night glaring at the son of Ares, Atlanta was working on her in-armour moonwalk or something and I was falling asleep on my sword. No one stabbed anyone near important.

A loud echoing creak, made me jump and drop my sword. The faint glimmer of the first rays of dawn was spilling through the gates of Troy that were now open. Thousands of Greek soldiers were storming towards the city, quite literally sounding like thunder with all those feet.

I grabbed up my sword before the river of soldiers drowned me and gave me no choice but to follow its currents. Loud horns were being sounded throughout Troy. More thunderous feet pounding on the ground joined the Greek army's. Metal clashed against metal everywhere, sounding almost like music (not very good music) growing in depth as seconds wore on.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I spun my sword in hand and plunged into the sea of fighting. I sprinted towards a Trojan, puncturing his torso as I passed him. I left his wheezing body to bleed on the streets.

The Battle of Troy had begun.


	13. The Battle of Troy

**Next chapter! If you have read this far, please let me know, PM me or review I really just want to know who's out there actually reading. Thanks no one and Lil'J for reviewing, it means a lot to me. This chapter is dedicated to them. **

**Chapter 13: The Battle of Troy**

I ran through the city, with a seemingly endless supply of energy. I never found myself panting, my legs only burned with the desire to keep going and my head was only throbbing with enthusiasm. People seem to feel most alive on the brink of death.

I stabbed a Trojan in the back, as the stream of men begun thinning out into pools of fighting. To admit, doing nothing except sharpening my sword all yesterday really paid off. I yanked my sword from the guy's back as he stumbled to the ground and lay lifeless. War is insane.

I jumped over a dying Greek, and took on his attacker. The helmet he wore covered his face only too well. It made the prospect of killing less realistic. If I could've seen his face, seen eyes full of pleading, I wouldn't have had the guts to send a sword through his neck. Without a face, the Trojan seemed like another enemy in a game I only killed because I was required to.

I left another dead Trojan in the dust. I looked up at the archers perched on walls high above us, raining arrows down on us every two seconds. I pushed myself against a building and watched arrows plant themselves in Greeks and Trojans combined. I shuffled away from the archers' firing range and resumed my sprint with no real goal in mind.

I turned around the corner of the posh city-centre where a huge battle was raging. Swords and spears were colliding everywhere. Soldiers were slaughtering each other relentlessly. Amidst the fight was Leon, taking on only around ten guys at once. I ran over avoiding the many blades that tried to stab me through. I thrust my sword through the heart of one of Leon's attackers and stepped beside Leon.

"You must be from Sparta," I noted as I pushed someone's blade away from me.

"Yeah," Leon managed through gritted teeth as he sliced open one guy's neck. More Trojans began joining our fight. Leon cursed Ares and fought on harder. My sword was barely in my grasp as it flew against every blade that attempted to stab me. My rush of adrenaline wasn't enough to keep up this fight for long.

Leon wailed in pain behind me. Anger churned within me. I scowled at my attackers making them stop almost dead. I whipped my sword around and felt it rip through a Trojan behind me. I focused on the life auras around me and made them dim. Trojans dropped dead around me. I stabbed them all again for good luck.

I dropped to Leon's level. He had a spear through his stomach. His eyes were full of pain and his body was shaking.

"This armour doesn't do much for me," he moaned, "Don't mind me. There are thousands of others dying too. I'll be right." His voice was a mere croak.

"But you're dying," I said staring at the gaping hole in his body that was spewing blood.

"I noticed," Leon breathed.

"You need help."

"You can't help; I'll be dead before it..." His eyes jerked open wide. "Left!" He said, kicking me to my left. An arrow produced from the ground a centimetre from my position.

"Kill that guy for me," Leon breathed.

"Sure," I whispered, unsure how I felt, I'd known the guy what, three days and now I was watching him die.

I got to my feet and felt Leon's life fade behind me. I saw an archers standing on the roof of a temple preparing to kill another Greek. As the battle stormed on, I raced to the temple, with metallic clangs ringing in my ears, blurs of red, silver and bronze whizzing past my eyes and determination boiling inside me. I leaped up the temple's steps and slammed my sword into a marble pillar. The earth shook. Huge cracks spread through the walls as chunks of the roof collapsed. I didn't wait to see the aftermath, I turned and ran.

I was exhausted by the time I got away from the ruined temple. Leon was dead. I'd only known him three days and he was dead. War is stupid (no offence Ares). All war does is kill and destroy. So many had been through years of war, so many had died and so many had lost loved ones and friends. Friends. The word repeated itself over in my mind. It'd been what, thirteen days since I'd seen Savanna, Kyle and Justin, and after my crazy dream I really wanted to see them.

Another enemy charged at me. I was tired and lazy, so I raised an open palm and made his life fade. No it didn't fade. The invisible aura was being drawn towards my palm. I could feel it moving through the air slowly inching closer to me. It made contact with the skin on my palm, sending cold shivers up my spine before rejuvenated strength washed over me. For a long while after the scary thought boiled inside me, I could take power from death. Man Dad was too right about me not knowing all my powers.

Darkness curled around me. Twisting and spinning around like a dying snake. I looked around at the battle and decided to rejoin it once more. I strode calmly towards the battle with a strong sense of belonging.

This is where death is most loved, a voice within me said, this is where one dies every second. This. Is. War.

And I didn't try to deny it.

Dead bodies lay everywhere. Most of the ground was tinged red from blood. Men were yelling, metals were clashing and skin was tearing so loud it was audible. I surveyed the battle. Every man had a look on the strongest determination in their eyes, every fight came down to who the better fighter was anyway. The voice was right, someone was dying every second.

I looked over at the area where the most Trojans were gathered, all of them fighting only three Greeks. A Trojan passed their sword through a Greek, but it passed through without harming anyone in anyway. I looked more closely to see what I'd missed. The Trojan swung his sword harmlessly through the Greek a second time, before he gave up on the sword and sliced through his opponent. The Trojan's sword glinted with darkness instead of reflecting the morning sun's rays. Stygian iron. It had to be mine. The sword that I'd lost when I'd had to battle Zane to the death.

The Trojan started walking away from the gathering of Trojans and me leaving his companions to deal with the remaining two Greek soldiers. Unfortunately for him, I wanted my sword back. I tackled the guy from behind and knocked my sword out of his hands. Our armour hit the ground with heavy metal clangs. I pounced on my weapon and picked it up.

"The sword doesn't work," the Trojan said edging backwards still on the ground, clearly he knew I knew it did work.

I raised my sword and pain erupted in my shoulder. I clasped a hand to it and felt warm wet liquid trickling out. I whipped around to face my attacker. Another Trojan had turned to me. I snatched up my mortal bronze sword with my good arm and swung the blade at my new enemy. He parried it effortlessly. He jabbed his sword at me before feigning a left swipe. I instinctively blocked the first and stepped back to avoid the second slash. He slammed his blade over my head. I raised my sword quickly, but with one hand my strength was limited. I wavered and had to dive left if I didn't want to die instantly.

My opponent's masked figured loomed over me. He pressed his sword against my neck. On the ground I had no escape route. Pain exploded in my injured shoulder again. I yelled with the impact. My other Trojan enemy was trying to kill me with my sword; with MY sword! I turned my head to the other Trojan, who prodded my back with my sword.

"I'll give you the honour," one of my opponents offered bowing with mock politeness. I watched the swords poking my neck. If I could just make their auras fade. I concentrated hard for an instant, but my mind was throbbing with the pain in my shoulder. Their lives were too strong, and mine was weak. I could feel my life trying to bleed away through my shoulder. I clung to the small hope that they'd spare me.

A squeal of "NICO!" caught my attention. A Trojan dropped dead the other tried to stab me quickly, but an arrow found its way to his lung and he staggered back. I struggled to raise myself up. Blurs appeared in my sight and my head seemed to float away as I raised myself. Atlanta's concerned face was above mine, her smooth hands undoing my shoulder's small plate of armour.

"They tried to kill you," Atlanta breathed her soothing voice quivering; "They can't kill you, not now. You don't belong in this time. I've brought you to your death!" I then noticed the tear that was sliding down her nose.

"I'm ok," I told her.

"You almost died!" she said her voice cracking, "I don't want you to go," she added on a quieter level. Her tear dripped off her nose and fell to the ground.

"Atlanta," I begun, "We really need to move, there's a war raging around us." She raised her head and looked around.

"I'll take you somewhere safe," she decided, "We need to fix your shoulder." She eyed the deep gash in my arm that was seething with pain. She held her hand out and I let her help me to my feet.

"Can you get my sword?" I asked, "It means a lot to me." Atlanta ripped my sword from the dead Trojan's grasp. We pushed through the army of fighters in the city centre without getting injured further.

Atlanta guided me to a spacious building with huge marble columns holding it up. It had a big grand entrance with an intricate statue of a god on either side if it. Inside there was a huge pool of water with injured men around it, all were allies. The pool reflected the paintings on the high ceiling. Images of the sun and the gods, others of someone playing a lyre and satyrs blowing their reed pipes.

"A temple of Apollo?" I asked Atlanta.

"Yes," she replied, "It's only the best place fore a medical centre. Sit down and I'll go get the healer." I slid down the wall until I was on the ground. Atlanta jogged over to the other side of the room. I watched her converse with an older guy with absolutely no battle protection whatsoever. The guy strode away hurriedly while Atlanta jogged back.

Atlanta poured a small cup of water over my shoulder. I winced as pain kicked in.

"The healer's going to get some ambrosia," Atlanta explained, "Seeing as you're a demigod and he has no other need to use it." She managed a faint smile. I gave her my own. It clearly didn't look very normal as Atlanta started laughing.

"You know," she sighed, "If you hadn't been brought into this war, I'd be dead. I would've been consumed by telekhines if you hadn't stepped in, I would've gone through another load of torture at the fortress and they would've killed me afterwards. Nico, how can I repay you? I don't know any possible way to get you back to your home and we can't bend Kronos to our will."

"We'll manage," I told her, "You just saved my life from the Trojans times two so we're even." Atlanta smiled more.

"I guess," she said.

The healer chose that moment to turn up and give me the ambrosia. I must've been homesick because it tasted like a million fast-foods and multiple soft drinks. I could feel the wound on my shoulder heal and I felt way stronger. The healer looked at me, clearly impressed that he'd given me the substance that had healed my shoulder within a matter of moments. Atlanta was beaming. She gave me my sword and said, "Let's go kill some Trojans."

We raced out of the rest centre like nothing had happened. It felt good to have my old sword on hand again. Atlanta slung her bow over her shoulder and pulled out a long knife. A Trojan tried to stab us from the side as we ran past, but my sword meeting his gut prevented any form of argument. I followed Atlanta until we escaped the ever-crowded city centre when she stopped abruptly.

"What's up?" I asked. Atlanta shook her head.

"I just figured out something," she said, "We need to get to the stadium by midday."

"Why?"

"My dad hinted something during my imprisonment before I met you. He said something about a last second defence that draws its power from the noon sun."

"Well we should probably kill it before noon," I suggested.

"It's on the other side of the city; if we hurry we could make it." She gave me a look of anxiety; that didn't comfort me.

"So do you actually know how to get there?" I asked.

"Yeah," Atlanta sighed, "We should probably move."

We re-entered the city centre, only to meet a crazy mob of Trojans killing every Greek they saw. They singled one out before they all attacked. It looked pretty stupid, but it was working and working fast. Atlanta tried to drag me unseen into the shadows, unfortunately two fourteen year-olds look like much too easy prey to resist. They approached, we broke into a sprint. The mob was fast. Aldabra screamed as hit the ground in front of us. She then stabbed him quickly so he wouldn't be able to recount her squeal. I turned to face our other oppositions, but they'd already surrounded us.

A crazy idea hit me as the guys lashed out from all angles. I grabbed Atlanta's hand and willed the ground to swallow us. It was an insane idea, I knew that much, but I didn't want to die or have to destroy more life auras; killing just felt so wrong and the guilt I'd gained from killing the Trojans in the barracks was weighing down on me more than I could stand.

I felt the ground shake and part beneath my feet. Rocks flew everywhere, while I descended into the depths of the earth. My feet hit solid ground heavily, but took on no damage. I looked up at the crevasse in the earth and looked at the Trojans staring down at me and Atlanta.

"Don't freak out," I whispered to Atlanta. I reached a hand to the sky above me and the hole closed. Only too soon did I realise just how much I'd pushed my limits. My head went all foggy and decided to go swimming.

The blotches obscuring my eyesight cleared away instants after. There was a white light shining in the core of the small enclosed cavern. Atlanta sat beneath the light staring intensely at it. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. This really hadn't been my best week. Atlanta saw me and stopped gazing at the light. It dimmed, but didn't completely diminish.

"What the Hades just happened?" she ordered.

"I got us away," I said.

"And trapped us in this stupid cave!"

"That too..."

"We need to get out now! Yeah it's only been ten minutes since we chose to leave for the stadium, but we need to move!"

"Take a chill pill. Can I ask why a light is floating around?"

"Not until we're out," Atlanta grunted.

"Ok!" I said. I pushed a hand against the rocky surface of the cavern and transferred some of my energy to it. I had no idea what that would do, but it seemed like a good idea.

The ground rumbled.

"Thanks Nico," Atlanta said sounding as if she'd completely forgotten the forceful tone she'd just been using, "I knew you'd work faster if I yelled at you. You did save my life a third time." I gave her a look that said "and I believe that because..." and she sighed.

"Ok, I'm just really scared of cramped spaces," she admitted, "It feels like the cavern is going to close on me and leave me as a pile of mush." The ground shook violently. Atlanta's expression turned scared, "The walls aren't going to squash us right?" As if to answer the question the wall I was leaning on shot forwards, while the one in front melted away. Atlanta screamed and clung on to me with her eyes shut tight.

We were sped around under the earth for about five minutes. Our path constantly twisted and turned and I doubted it paid much attention to gravity. Atlanta still clung to me, but her screaming had faltered. The light had disappeared, but it wouldn't make a difference.

The earth's surface above us cracked open, showering Atlanta and me in bits of dirt, rock and tile. The ground then spewed us out. We flew through the air for an instant, as the ground closed beneath us, which really didn't do well as a landing spot. I sat up with the world spinning around me. Atlanta seemed to be experiencing the same thing.

"That was crazy," she gasped her hands quivering in front of her.

"Where are we?" I asked praying she'd been to this part of the city before. Atlanta scanned the area. She probably saw it wasn't full of fighting and looked too much like the place I'd fought Zane "to the death" in. Like a colosseum.

"The stadium," she whispered, "Nico we still have time to destroy this 'secret weapon'! We have to move!"

"Where the Hades would they hide something here?" I asked surveying the barren ground around me. Sure there were gates where they hid monsters and stuff, but for some reason they were wide open and empty. The stands were empty; even the general's podium stand tent thing had been taken down.

We were alone.

"Nico I really don't like this," Atlanta said standing up. I got up too and drew my sword, something had to be watching us, and it had to be some sort of trap.

"Hello daughter," a deep harsh voice from behind snarled, "You're only too predictable."


	14. Life and Death Situations

**Hey readers! Why is no one reading chapter twelve? Anyhoo… **

**No I don't own PJO or any of its characters. This chapter is for my loyal readers, who've been reading all along, and the guy who read chapter 12 (you rock bud! Virtual hug!) This chapter is a bit dark at parts; please don't kill me for where I leave it! So I encourage you to read on, and please, if you like it or hate it review, it'll mean a lot to me, I've wanted to be an author for so long now, telling me my mistakes would be great. **

**Chapter 14: Life and Death Situations**

I whipped around. A strong man clad in iron armour, with intense brown eyes staring through his helmet. His sword was read for battle, in his wrist and looking deadly sharp. He had a look in his eyes that said "I'm going to destroy you."

Atlanta glared at the man.

"Father," she spat.

"You're not worthy to call me that," he responded his voice as cold as ice, "Lord Malagius would be a much more suiting name for your low self to be calling me; at least General Malagius would be good enough."

"Atlanta," I whispered, "Let's take him. Two on one now before he puts his trap in motion." I twisted my hands around my sword's hilt. At Camp Half-Blood, that was the normal signal for "attack now", here it wasn't.

I darted forwards and swung my sword at Malagius's wrist, taking off some skin and sending his sword clattering against the ground. I pushed him to the ground as he yelled pathetic last words, like "outrageous" and "fool" and a curse to Ares. I raised my sword over his head.

"Wait," Atlanta ordered. I stopped mid-swing staring down at a terrified Malagius.

"You knew my mother was Artemis, didn't you?" Atlanta said, "You knew. You knew! You'd made the maiden goddess fall for you; she'd given you her love. You accomplished something no other man could, but the reminder that looms over your shoulder, you've tortured, you've hated, you've tossed aside like they're nothing! Why?" Atlanta yelled, clearly very upset. "Why!"

"Atlanta," Malagius stammered, "I'd explain if your friend removed his sword from my neck."

"The only good you've given me is a name! That sword is not moving from your neck, not until you confess you knew."

"I knew!" Malagius decided, I didn't move my sword.

"Why did you treat me like a slave?" Atlanta demanded.

"I-I never did that!"

"You only tortured me until I was half insane! What made me such a burden to you?"

"Your mother requested I hurt you, you were a reminder to her breaking her oath."

"Since when do you listen to the gods? Since when do you care what others want? If Artemis said that I would've Bern royalty to you! Yet my brother is, and I'm the piece of rubbish you tossed aside!"

"Where is your brother?" Malagius asked.

"Rotting," I said, "Or experiencing a first-class tour of a telekhine's digestive system."

"Outrageous!" Malagius stormed, "You demigods think you're invincible!" (I thought quite the opposite) "You think you can do whatever you want because your parents are immortal!"

"Shut up Dad!" Atlanta ordered, "You don't know half of how hard my life is!" Malagius changed tactics - he didn't shut up, but he quietened. He started whispering words in a language that was probably ancient to Ancient Greeks. Atlanta gasped.

"NICO KILL HIM NOW!" Atlanta screamed. I swung my sword over his neck, which was my fatal mistake. My Stygian iron blade passed through his flesh harmlessly, "like cutting water" Zane had said. The ground started shaking, shaking and rising. I fell to the moving ground as it started tearing itself apart. My sword slipped from my grasp. Malagius ended his chant and Atlanta was firing arrows at him, but on the pulsing ground a good shot was impossible.

I pushed myself up to my knees. One question was going through my mind, "What the Hades is happening?" Then the earth shattered. It fell apart, leaving Atlanta, Malagius and me falling to whatever was waiting for us below. The noon sun shone down on us and revealed the mosaic floor beneath the place the Stadium's floor used to be.

My heart sped up within the instant. I was going to be reduced to a pulp, three thousand years before I'm even born. I found myself screaming and not even feeling embarrassed. To sum up - I was freaked out.

The only thought that comforted me was that Malagius was going to die as well. Atlanta was frantically screaming, her arms outstretched trying to slow her fall. My heart throbbed. It would've been nice to spend a day with her, a normal day, not one full of war and fights and prisons; just a day to get to know her that was one thing I would've loved.

As thoughts, regrets, dreams and memories flashed through my mind and heart, my body continued its fall to the unforgiving ground. Could Dad judge my life if I lived in the future? I wondered.

Something, heavy, cold, hard and painful smashed into my face, sending me head over heels and flying horizontally. I yelled with pain and surprise. Something slammed into my torso next and closed around me. I breathed. I was alive! I peered down at the thing closed around me. A giant metallic hand. I had been saved by a giant hand from nowhere. Then it dawned on me that it wasn't from nowhere. I saw a huge bronze arm connected to a huge body about a hundred meters away from me.

I heard another metal thud and Atlanta scream loudly. I was reasonably worried for her life until I heard, "Let go of me freakazoid giant!" The freakazoid didn't take that as a compliment. There was loud metallic creaking as the giant's lips moved.

"Silence demigod!" It ordered, "Or you will experience another round of torture!" Its voice was very robotic, every word detached, every syllable pronounced with careless exactness and the funny computerized voice.

I heard Malagius being drawn out of his fall. Whose side was the thing on? The giant bent down with its hand still gripping me tightly. Atlanta was trying everything she could to get out of its opposite hand. Then it reached forward, and I discovered it had not two, but four giant metal arms.

It held Malagius in one of its open palms, allowing Malagius to walk around freely. The giant gently placed Malagius on the ground and bowed.

"Good work," Malagius told the giant cheerily, "Now you leave these two to me and my men and you can destroy the Greeks. Show them no mercy; make sure a certain brother of mine is killed. Don't drop your two captives until I give my word." Those words made giant crush my ribs more, seriously, you ever felt like your ribs are moving because of something other than breathing? Not. Fun.

Malagius darted away for an instant.

"What is this thing?" I asked Atlanta, even though she probably had less of an idea than me.

"I don't know!" she answered, flaying her legs around in the air wildly. I looked down at my sword on the mosaic floor below. The mosaic pattern around my sword was quite intriguing. It seemed to be a portrait of someone I swear I'd seen before. A boy no older than me, with oily sandy hair that clung to his face, a threatening look on his face, a flat strong javelin and golden eyes. Any closer to the mosaic and it would've been a blur of colours.

"Nico," Atlanta started, her voice wavering a little bit, "Is it just me or does the mosaic look like-like, like Zane?" I looked at it again through squinted eyes. I had to put my eyes out of focus to realise, it did look like Zane.

"What the Hades?" I muttered under my breath. A small fleet of heavily armed, athletic looking guys chose this moment to jump down from the original floor onto the mosaic ground. Each one before landing stabbed a knife into the wall to stop their fall and drop the remainder. Malagius emerged last. He face beamed with evil joy and the mutilated, burned, bloodied body of the Greek son of Ares over his arm. That was about the time I realised that the other guys weren't, human. Their bodies were metallic bronze so that it looked tan in the sun, their joints imitated human ones, but were visible of the outside and they radiated no form of life.

"Automatons," I muttered. Atlanta cursed quietly as they circled us. I tried to wriggle out of the giant's grasp and that's when I figured that the giant was also an automaton. I looked back at Malagius who was now cackling loudly at the look of terror on mine and Atlanta's faces. Malagius dropped the son of Ares on the ground in front of us.

"You think you are invincible!" Malagius called as he landed, (I've already said I don't agree) "This is what my automatons are trained to do. Kill and destroy demigods. I will frame your heart on my wall Atlanta."

"That's sick!" Atlanta yelled, "You disgust us! At least I'll die with a clear conscience!"

"Your last words are highly amusing Atlanta," Malagius said, "You will die-"

"Can we just shut up and kill each other?" I asked, really sick of the stupid argument they were having. I didn't want to quicken my death, but I didn't want to prolong the pain before it.

"That would be nice," Atlanta agreed. Malagius opened his mouth to respond, but thought better of it and shut up.

"Thank you," I muttered, "Now could you ask your robot friend to drop us..."

"Drop them and destroy the Greeks," Malagius ordered. The hand around me loosened and I hit the ground heavily landing on my back.

I rubbed my head as I sat up. Fortunately for me, the automatons had made no aggressive form of movement. They had armour screwed onto them, and their swords were attached to their right arms, leaving me one goal; left. Atlanta landed next to me on her back also. Unlike me, she struggled to sit up in her armour. Our giant automaton friend ploughed its way through the stadium clearing an extra large entrance. I heard him bulldoze half the city to rubble along his way. And I thought the Greeks were the ones who destroyed Troy.

I slid my hand over my sword and gripped it tightly. It was my only hope of life, I knew that much. I could handle Malagius no problems, but twenty or so automatons at once? Yeah about when Kronos figures out he's never going to win (never). I held my lifeline as Atlanta stood up. I jumped up and thrust my sword into the left side of an automaton. It was metal. Metal doesn't chop metal all that easily.

The automaton kicked my shins, his metal foot sending cold pain through my leg. I knew I was only too doomed. Luckily Atlanta was still burning with hope, her face screwed into a look of determination, her brown eyes...

_Snap__out__of__it!_ I told myself, _she__'__s__three__thousand__years__old!__Just__not__going__to__work__bud._

"You can't kill me father!" Atlanta said, "I'm a reminder of what you achieved that no other man could. Just what did you do to make her love you?" That was something I would've wanted to know.

"Never you mind!" Malagius scolded, "My men, destroy these-"

"Wait!" Atlanta interrupted.

"Just kill the-"

"Father," Atlanta butted in again, clearly trying to come up with a way to get us out of this situation.

"KILL THE DEMIGODS!" Malagius screamed quickly, I would've enjoyed watching a grown man throw a fit like that in any other situation, but under the circumstances, I didn't have time to laugh.

I ducked under the first blade that came on me. Ten automatons had singled me out. I kicked one that ran at me and hurt my knee in the process. I limped out of the way of another, pushed two away with one swipe. It was a one sided battle. I was too preoccupied with defence to have any time to even contemplate how to destroy them! I had never really ever been angrier than I was then. Constantly spinning and twirling, swinging my sword around like I was dancing. Anger egged me on. Sweat drenched my face, my arms felt heavy, my legs felt like lead and my shoulder and to top in all off, I was missing my sore shoulder's plate of armour, and it didn't take the automatons too long to figure out it was my weakest point.

Half of the band of automatons targeted my right. I lashed out at them, but all it took was a scratch from a blade to take away the effect of the ambrosia on my arm. I hollered and staggered forwards. If automatons could laugh, these one were. Their mouths opened and closed repeatedly and silently. A spear came down on my shoulder a second time. I screamed in agony and continued moaning. I closed my eyes and held my breath. I put the little energy I had into turning my head away from my attackers. Pain pumped through my body. I could feel my own blood spread over the cool tiled floor, it warmed my face, but made the rest of me squirm with disgust.

Atlanta let out a cry of pure agony. I tried to get up and help her, but another spear was planted dangerously close to my heart. I can't describe the intense, white-hot, agonizing pain that spread over me, that hit me like someone throwing a brick at your face, only a thousand times heavier and torturous. I didn't have time or energy to scream. I managed a muffled exhalation, but could barely breathe afterwards. I could feel air in places I shouldn't have been able to, it stung worse than Hades. As my blood squeezed through my lungs they began to seize up, trying desperately to breathe. My mind became foggy, my head felt dizzy. I shivered under the pain. My warm blood rose into my mouth. I would've coughed and sputtered, but there was no air in my lungs to use.

It was over. I was done, finished forever. Turns out my fatal flaw was being unable to survive a punctured lung. I was doomed. Even Atlanta's tortured cries weren't enough to animate me. As time began seeming static and my life started fading, I could feel my very thought weakening. I could sense the automatons looming above me, but they didn't matter.

It was fate. We're all going to pass at a time. The time reserved for us, no one else's, ours. Life ends, as does most things, but if we choose we can welcome death graciously when the time is ours, or we can wallow in regrets and remember the last miserable moments forever. Fate is fate. Destiny is destiny. Mine had come, but I was at peace. I had achieved much in my life. I'd saved Olympus by bringing my father and his armies to come and reinforce our side in the war; I'd fought giants and helped stop Gaia from reigning over the earth. If I was to die there, it was so. It was meant to be that way. I'd done my service in life, I'd completed my designated mission, and I was at peace.

Numbness swept over me. My soul resided in peace. As blood spilled freely from my numb self I did nothing to hide from the face of death. I put all my energies in an attempted smile at no one before my destiny was done.


	15. The Last Stand

**I'm back guys! Sorry it took a while. Thanks to Lemariz (sorry if I spelt it wrong) for reviewing, totally made my day way better and inspired me to get this chapter up ASAP. And I'm so sorry I didn't mention this in the fourth chapter, but all translations have been provided by "Nico's Ancient Greek to Modern English Translation Service" just if any others were wondering… **

**I don't own Nico or anything else from PJO that stuff belongs to Rick Riodarn. **

**If you're reading and enjoying please review and tell me because, I know people are reading, but I have no idea if they actually like my story. Please tell me somehow. Tell me if this chapter works or not, bits that don't make sense, or just stuff you don't fully understand. **

**And thus it begins…**

**Chapter 15: The Last Stand**

I was lost in nothingness. Nothing surrounded me it seemed. I could sense nothing. I was pretty sure I was dead. Maybe I was floating through nothingness on my way to the Underworld. Or maybe I was at the very point between life and death. Maybe. Should it be hard to think if I'm dying? Should my senses be animate if I was dead? Questions flooded my mind.

Though the answer was clear - I was dead; my mind didn't want to accept the truth.

I can't be dead! I have another seventy good years to live!

You're dead Nico; you can't change or deny that.

I can't be dead before I was even born!

Well, you are.

I just can't win this can I?

What did you expect? You're thinking.

I guess we are dead.

Only too right.

Well was Dad right? Does being pushed beyond my limits include death?

Yep.

I thought for a while. I wasn't sure how long. Time doesn't really matter when you're dead. There were no sensations, I was a conscience and that's about all I was. Nothing. I contemplated the word. How much longer would nothing be all I experienced? How much longer would nothing be all around me?

There was a faint burning feeling in my chest, well at least where I remember my chest being; I couldn't tell, I couldn't feel any part of me other than the place of the burning sensation to be able to decipher any other part of me. The warming tingling began spreading through me. I was still engulfed in nothing, but there was one sensation, that I cherished for the moment.

It was a pleasant burning feel; I knew it was for the better. It continued pulsing through me. It gave me energy and soon enough I knew where my heart was. It began beating. Its faint rhythm vivid in my mind. I could feel the blood sliding around in my body. Soon enough I had the energy to heave my lungs into gear.

Cool air rushed into my lungs. I only released the air much too quickly. I felt the warm air brush through my lips and I inhaled again. To no surprise, breathing was addicting.

With breath successfully passing in and out of my lungs, I went a step further. Could I move a voluntary muscle? I tried to open my eyes. Bright white blinded me, but at least I was moving.

At least I wasn't dead.

A ringing sound exploded in my ears as the tingling sensation came to them. The burning soon filled me. I was breathing again, I was hearing again, I was sort of seeing again and I was alive again.

The blurred image of someone shone above me. Their eyes were glowing, glowing gold and they seemed to be propelling the burning energizing warmth through me. Slowly and steadily, my numbness dissipated, the ring in my ears subsided, my vision became clearer and the burning faded.

Zane was leaning over me his helmet askew on his face. He looked worried, more worried than I'd seen even Grover look. Zane heaved a sigh of relief.

"You were dead," he remarked.

"I was dead?" I asked my throat raw and dry.

"Unless having no pulse and no breathing is alive."

"Wait, why are we still here? What happened to the automatons?" Those questions rolled off my tongue easily, it was the last one that bothered me. I gulped as the thought entered my mind. "Is Atlanta ok?" Zane heaved a sigh.

"She's reanimating, like you were a second ago," he explained, "Why are we still here? Dead bodies aren't the easiest things to drag around. What happened to the automatons? Well they were a little torn to pieces."

"How?"

"Are you saying you didn't expect me to be able to beat them?"

"But I've been at camp for two years and had training prior to that, Atlanta's a trained military recruit and you don't have any history with tearing robots to pieces." Zane the pest he is, just looked at me.

I sat up seriously agitated, he'd avoided telling me what the Hades was up and I was dead only seconds prior!

"Zane I know you know there's something different about you," I warned, "You better spit it out before things go crazy."

"If I told you it'd make things worse," Zane promised.

"Zane, you killed an unstoppable army of automatons and I just came back from the dead! I've been with you the whole of these two weeks and you still won't trust me!"

"I can't trust you," Zane confessed.

"What reason in Tartarus do you have for that?"

"More than you know," he muttered. It was hopeless, Zane wouldn't say anything.

"Where's Atlanta?" I asked, trying to remove Zane's ever-stubborn mood. All Zane did was nod his head over to the other side of the isolated stadium, towards the figure of a girl sprawled over the ground with a bloodstained spear beside her. I sprung to my feet and rushed over to her. Zane stayed put.

I reached Atlanta. Her body limp and lifeless; her blood leaking from her armour onto the mosaic floor; her deep brown eyes unfocused; her olive complexion already paling. She couldn't be dead. Everyone I'd met here had died. Atlanta couldn't be dead.

"No," I whispered. My closest friend throughout this time, was gone. I couldn't stop the tears that fell down my face. I remembered Percy's words when the gold dust attacked camp, "You couldn't save your sister, you couldn't save Michael, you couldn't save anyone."

I cradled Atlanta's head in my arms, angry fire flared inside me.

I couldn't save Atlanta, I thought. I picked up the spear beside her. I hadn't been able to save her, but I would avenge her, she hadn't deserved to be treated the way her father had treated her. I would kill Malagius; and I would kill him good. I rested her head on the ground and clasped her fragile hands. I inspected the gaping hole in her armour. Fraying bits of bronze were peeling from it and falling into her open wound, right over her heart. It felt like there was a gaping hole in my heart, an empty longing, but she was gone.

Atlanta would never know that I loved her. Another tear slipped from my eye. Love was a word I hadn't thought of in a while, since Bianca. Sure enough I'd worked myself into sobs. Gone. That's where they both were. I wanted to see Atlanta's eyes full of hope, not glazed over with emptiness. I wanted to see how she crinkled her thin eyebrows when she was fighting. I wanted to see her lips part into that small perfect smile I hadn't seen enough. I needed to see that smile. I wouldn't see that again, ever. I yearned to have her back and tell her just how much she'd helped me, just how much she'd put into my life. I'd long forgotten the warm feeling in my heart when someone close to me was near. I'd remembered and cherished the cold hard ache inside when that person was ripped away from me, too much.

"Why didn't you heal her?" I asked Zane, my voice strengthened by anger yet cracking with sorrow. "You had a choice didn't you?" Zane didn't respond. I turned over my shoulder outraged.

"Why didn't you save her?" I demanded. I gripped Atlanta's hand tighter. She shouldn't have been gone.

"Nico," Zane sighed, sounding more annoyed than grieved, "It was you or her."

"You should've helped her!"

"I tried!" Zane insisted, "The same on her as I did for you. She's just too weak. She couldn't cope."

"I was as dead as her!" I stormed. Zane turned to his feet. There was silence except for my stifled sobs. Zane drifted slowly away from me and Atlanta's body, he only made it too clear he didn't care.

Something whistled in the air, or that's what I thought it was. The noise repeated. It turned into a wheezing sound. I spun my head to Atlanta. Her chest was slowly, heavily rising and falling. Hope ignited inside me. I squeezed her hand and waited anxiously for a response. She made a different muffled noise. I watched her with concern.

"Be ok," I whispered more to myself than to Atlanta, "Be ok."

I watched her wound sew itself back together carefully. My breathing was rushed and stressed. It seemed too unreal. As much as I wanted her back it was wrong for the dead to come back, it shouldn't happen.

Slowly her brown eyes came back to life. I found myself beaming with joy. Her eyes looked around intensely before her fingers began drumming the ground. My sobs finally thinned out and ended when she turned to me. Atlanta glanced at our hands together, I'd forgotten that I'd still been holding hers. She managed a weak smile, the one she had when we were sitting by the river the night her mother had claimed her. Full of peace, it seemed to lighten the burden on my shoulders. I whispered her name and a tear fell down her cheek.

"They said you were dead," she whispered, her voice weaker and softer than it usually was.

"You were dead," I told her gently.

"How?" she asked, but I knew the rest of her question.

"Zane said he did something, what that was don't ask me."

"Have they stopped the giant automaton?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied. A courageous smirk spread over her face.

"Well," she started, her voice back to its strong forceful self, "We have some work to do."

I stood up and pulled Atlanta to her feet. I rushed over to my Stygian iron sword on the ground before I turned to Zane.

"You coming?" I asked. Zane scowled like that was the worst possible thing for me to say. Instead of striding away from us, Zane unsheathed his celestial bronze knives and gave me a bored look.

"Hurry up you cyclopses!" Atlanta called. I glanced at Zane and smiled, before catching up with Atlanta.

Getting out of the stadium was easy, we climbed up without much hassle (thank you lava wall), finding our giant automaton friend was easy, all you had to do was follow the sounds of people begging for mercy and the loud snapping of bones and men screaming or you could just go the opposite way to the crowd. Getting to the giant automaton was the hard part. We pushed through mobs of men all sprinting away from our destination. I made sure I never lost sight of Zane and Atlanta, I didn't want to see anything hurt her anymore and I didn't want Zane to run off, perform some crazy stunts and then go all emo when I tried to interrogate him about it.

I stumbled over half a dead mutilated body, and was finally able to see our giant's feet, well its left foot's toes anyway. I stared up at it in awe for a while. Atlanta glared at it like it was another frustrating obstacle in our way. Zane observed it, slowly moving his head up and down. I seemed to be the only one accepting the fact it would most likely kill us. I looked around us. Few had the courage to remain in the giant's presence; many dead, crushed, mutilated or dying bodies littered the ground everywhere. Nothing had added even the tiniest scratch to the giant's feet. Without hassle was clearly how this guy killed. The remaining fighters were all Greek, no Trojans. They had no knowledge that this was their secret weapon.

Atlanta turned to me.

"Whoever does the most damage gets fifteen drachmas," she gambled as if this was all just a game.

"You're on," I told her, my voice a lot fainter than hers.

"Wake up Nico," she said clearly having noticed my fear, "You and I just came back from the dead, with help from Zane. We're unstoppable together." She spoke those words with determined fire in her eyes, her voice echoing hope throughout the street and so much power and force the whole Trojan army would've run and cowered behind a tree if they heard it.

"We will win," Atlanta finished.

"I know we will," I told her my voice ringing with renewed confidence.

"So how exactly do you two plan to take down this thing?" Zane asked.

"Us three," I corrected.

"Us fifty," a familiar yet intimidating voice corrected.

"Achilles!" Atlanta cried. I turned to find the invincible man himself standing before me.

"Di Angelo!" another voice called. Strangely enough it was the mastermind who'd come up with the plan to infiltrate the barracks before I found my death powers.

"Person!" I greeted. He smiled at me.

"So this is our final stand?" he asked.

"Not ours," Atlanta cut in, "This will be Troy's last stand."

"FOR GREECE!" a new voice cried.

"FOR GREECE!" everyone chanted creating strength in the hearts of even the weakest men. We could take down this crazy robot and I knew it.

The men in the streets nearby had assembled to fight, not one wasn't eager to end the war that day. Mastermind stood beside Achilles looking at Zane, Atlanta and me like we were leading this battle.

"Achilles!" Mastermind said, "Can you distract the automaton while we come up with a plan?"

"Sure thing Heditinus," Achilles replied instantly running off and stabbing the giant's feet a couple times screaming insults and curses to it. We all backed off as Autommy did a one-eighty and ran after Achilles.

"Ok," I started sounding extremely leader-like, "You," I said pointing at Mastermind.

"Heditinus," he supplied.

"Heditinus, you come up with a plan. The rest of us will be here to help, and yeah."

"We just need to get rid of our automaton problem fast," Zane summed up, "Or we're all dead. No pressure Heditinus." Heditinus just nodded and started pacing quickly. Everyone watched him anxiously, yet it didn't seem to waver Heditinus's efforts.

"Take that you fiend!" Achilles yelled from somewhere.

"Got it!" Heditinus announced.

"What do we do?" Atlanta asked, appearing over my shoulder.

"Surround the automaton, leaving it in one position, yes it will kill a lot of us, but if we don't try thousands more will die. While the automaton tries to bat everyone away, the person nearest the back of a foot climbs up and finds the automaton's fatal point. That person destroys it and we win!" The plan was good, but it seemed far too simple for such a crisis. No one had any better ideas, so we settled for Heditinus's plan and followed the sounds of Achilles yelling at the automaton.

I rounded the corner first to find Achilles in the giant's huge hands, his feet flailing around in the air below him. Autommy was trying to crush Achilles.

"You know this would really hurt if I wasn't invincible," he declared. The small army of Greeks quickly circled Autommy. Autommy didn't take a second to look puzzled; instead it lifted a giant bronze foot and slammed it on the ground. The loud metallic thud echoed around the city and there was a sickening squelches and agonised unceasing screams. Atlanta was first to react; she scrambled up the leg that had been slammed onto the ground and climbed. She used the thin dents in Autommy's armour to pull herself upwards. As she made a desperate search for a fatal point, Autommy kept pounding its feet on the ground. It gave up on trying crushing Achilles and dropped him. Achilles rolled to my side.

"She's going to need more help if we're relying in a single point," Achilles remarked.

"She's pretty good at killing," I said.

"The automaton has no life, as you should be able to tell. Youth can be so foolish; underestimating this thing is a very bad mistake. You need to help your friend." Achilles gave me a disappointed look with pale blue eyes, I remembered his ghost talking to Percy and me when I was twelve, telling us he'd been arrogant and stuck-up. From what I'd seen of him, he wasn't so bad, so I decided to heed his words and jumped onto Autommy's giant foot.

I'd never been on a roller-coaster, but riding a giant automaton's foot had to come close to the speed and height of one. I was raised through the air steadily; at that stage getting a grip on the metal was my only goal. I was then thrust down faster than gravity could pull me and found myself trying to pull myself down, some part of me seeming to be floating high above pulling me up. When the floating sensation ended, I plummeted down onto Autommy's foot with a lot of pain churning around inside my stomach. I took the moment to climb up the leg. I jumped up and caught one of the lower shin bolts and used it to fling myself to the next one. I used the same swinging process until I was standing on Autommy's left hip (which seemed extremely weird).

Atlanta raised herself onto Autommy's right shoulder blade. She gave me that determined look of hers and started looking for some form of weak point. I continued climbing the cold metal, slowly rising past Atlanta onto Autommy's head. I scanned the ground; there was no way through any point in the metal. I slid down onto Autommy's shoulder.

"Heditinus!" I called down urgently, "There's no way through!"

"There has to be!" Heditinus yelled back.

"No there's none!" Atlanta yelled, raising herself to my level.

"How are we supposed to beat it now?" Heditinus asked.

"We'll find a way," Atlanta decided.

"You better!" Achilles yelled.

"We didn't ask for you opinion!" I told him. Autommy flung another Greek halfway across the world.

"Well we need to beat it quick," Heditinus called ducking to avoid a swipe from a giant hand. I went through any possible options to destroy Autommy quickly; there were none.

Autommy lurched forwards suddenly, knocking me off balance and making Atlanta fall towards a tall building below. That made me angry enough to take down an army, without crazy Son-of-Hades powers. Atlanta sat up, but held her arm carefully. If I'd only looked at her face I would've thought nothing had happened. Her unbreakable spirit was still clearly whirring around inside her. Autommy moved forwards again. I held its shoulder tightly this time. I slammed my sword into its neck, but apart from a couple of silver sparks, it had no effect. I yanked my sword out from the metal and crawled onto the top of the head again. I jabbed my sword through metal a heap of times, but nothing could hurt it. By the time I was on top of the head I was panting angrily and yelling in frustration. I slammed my sword through the metal again; once again there was no reaction. I tried again about ten times only generating more peculiar silver sparks.

Then Autommy looked up. I smashed my sword once again into Autommy and held for dear life as I was tilted vertically. My legs swayed uselessly below me and my knuckles went white, I was gripping my sword so tightly. I strained to keep my sweaty hands from dooming me. I slipped and dangled above the ground far below. I started breathing quickly. I could feel my quickening pulse blasting through my wrist. Autommy then made a noise that could've been automaton for, "demigod on head is unstylish" or "demigod on head is going to die." It pulled its head forward hastily. My arm was flung backwards (causing it a whole lot of pain) and I hung in front of Autommy's forehead. It shook its head and pounded the ground with his feet. Men wailed, some yelled, most screamed, around ten were crushed to a pulp. It started clobbering its head with three arms and sprinted through the city.

I had really sore arms by the time we'd moved two steps. Autommy's whole body shook with every step it took and made mine bounce a fair bit too. Autommy trampled buildings and crushed horses, men and citizens. As I dangled listening to buildings being reduced to dust, men screaming in agonised pain and women and children screaming for loved ones, I knew I had to end Autommy. As I was tossed around like I rag-doll, I focused on one of the many disheartening sounds around me. I heard buildings fall and collide with the earth, I heard them shatter like glass being hit by a boulder; I heard the earth's faint and steady rhythm build. The ground around me was under a lot of pressure due to Autommy, all it would take to make it give way was a slight push from my mind. Just to be safe, I told the ground to shatter and be thrown away from the one spot Autommy was above.

The ground shook fiercely for a split-second before exploding and causing Autommy and I to fall into the depths of the earth beneath. So I had one problem solved, the next was, how the Hades do I stay conscious and escape the earth's wrath? Unfortunately, that was inescapable alone. After making such a large segment of earth move, my energy was beyond low. I couldn't even stay conscious for half my fall, all I could remember was the moment my hand slipped away from the hilt of my sword and a small shard of stone grazing my cheek before I passed into rest.

"He saved us," I heard a voice say; "His fate won't be harsh."

"He's not dead," a miserable annoyed voice mumbled.

"I know his fate will be fit for a hero," a more feminine voice added, her voice weak and soft, "It's just that-"

"What part of 'he's not dead' don't you idiots get?" the miserable voice from before asked, I recognised it as Zane's.

"What part of 'human emotion' don't you get?" the first voice spat back, it sounded vaguely like Heditinus. There was no response. My arms ached like Tartarus, my eyelids felt like they were glued together, my right ankle burned and my mouth was dry and raw. A cool drop of water fell onto my face and a smooth hand brushed it off. It seemed to reawaken me as I let out a long moan.

"NICO!" Atlanta squealed, "You're alive!"

"Not the first time you've said that," Zane muttered. Something pulled me up and hugged me tightly. I opened my eyes and saw the blurry image of Atlanta swimming in front of my eyes. Zane stood behind her, still clad in battle armour arms crossed in front of him. Heditinus knelt next to Atlanta with a relieved smile on his face. Atlanta gazed up at me with a tear-stricken face, her brown eyes once again full of a burning spirit and happiness.

"So," I started, "What happened after I left?"

"We won!" Atlanta announced. Zane smirked because we knew they would all along.

"Yeah," Heditinus agreed, "So we're all heading back to pack up camp if we can't be bothered to watch the duel tomorrow."

"Cool," I said.

"And I figured out a way we can get home," Zane said, running his finger over a mortal blade and taking it off to reveal no harm had been done. "I think I can get us back to the time we left."

"How could you do that?" I asked, seriously confused.

"Zane," Atlanta begun, "In the stadium, the mosaic floor, it looked strangely like you."

"Coincidence," Zane replied way too quickly, "Probably my great times infinity grandfather." That earned him the "are you serious" look from Atlanta and me.

"Zane," Atlanta sighed, "The longer you hide stuff from us, the closer we get to ripping out your guts. If there's something crazy about you that you know, you need to tell us before we assume you a potential enemy and isolate or kill you."

"It's just my dad," Zane sighed.

Finally, the little voice inside my head sighed, he's going to tell us!

"Ares?" Atlanta asked, "Zeus?"

"Fat chance," Zane said. A crazy idea popped into my mind.

"Zane," I started, "Can titans have half-mortal children?"

"No!" he snapped. Atlanta exchanged a concerned look with me; the answer to my question was clearly, yes.

"You froze time in the telekhines' cave didn't you?" I said. Zane didn't respond. "No god has power over time. Only a titan."

"Zane can't be a son of Kronos," Atlanta blurted, "He was sent to Tartarus eons ago."

"He rose in my time," I told her, "And I've travelled back in time three thousand years, which you think is the world of Kronos, he could've travelled back through time and had a half-mortal kid."

"What the Hades are you guys on?" Heditinus asked.

"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling extremely awkward, "Uh, Zane and I are from the future. I'm a demigod, Zane's a -"

"Demigod," Zane finished angrily.

"Why don't we just pick up our swords and leave?" Atlanta suggested, "Because I really don't like hanging around in an abandoned war-zone."

"Great idea!" Zane said practically jumping up with joy. He was hiding something big, and I had a bad feeling I knew what it was, I prayed I was wrong, but it made perfect sense. I felt stupid for noticing something so vital so late. Every piece of the puzzle pointed straight to it.

Zane wasn't a demigod. Zane was a god. Zane was the son of Time; the son of Kronos.

**Review peoples!**

**I'll loves ya for eternitiez! **

**Were you expecting that?**

**I bet you were! **

**He's not dead.**

**The Greeks won the war.**

**Yet we haven't seen Malagius…**

**Heh heh heh…**


	16. I Say Goodbye and Hello to Old Friends

**A new chapter (again)! I'm having so much fun writing this can I tell you. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.**

**I 3 you guys!**

**Chapter 16: I Say Goodbye and Hello to Old Friends**

We walked through the city of Troy in silence. The aftermath of the battle was really bad. There were dead bodies everywhere, weeping families and buildings that would've been spectacular monuments thousands of years later in ruins. Looking at all the sad families brought back bad memories. Bianca, dead, even after Percy had said he'd protect her. I remember feeling so let-down, so alone, so empty, so abandoned, so angry. I could see myself in too many of the faces around me.

Heditinus led our path out of the city with Zane by his side. Atlanta and I had come to the conclusion that the both of us knew who Zane's father was, without using words. I could tell from her stern expressions and disheartened looks at Zane, she couldn't believe the truth. She'd once turned to me and mouthed "Kronos" and I'd just nodded and continued waking. I just hoped he wasn't going to be the enemy, like Luke Castalean, once a friend then instantly turning into the enemy because of Kronos. I could only picture Zane releasing the titan all too well.

We walked through the ruined city and I found myself kicking a piece of rubble along our path. I hadn't remembered starting to kick it, but thought nothing of it and continued kicking it. A rock hit my shoulder and fell to the ground. I looked to my left where it'd come from. Another rock flew at me, then another three. I ducked beneath them. Someone out there didn't like me. Then our enemy came through.

The man screamed something like, "NYAHHHHHHHHHH..." as he dove out of the shadows in front of me. Malagius swung his sword around in the air.

"You demigods think you're invincible," he sneered.

"What does it take to get you to shut up?" I asked emphasis on the last two words.

"You think-"

"Malagius you killed me and Atlanta, we're not invincible."

"You're not dead."

"Thank you for noticing," I told him, "Heditinus, could I borrow your sword?"

"Ok," Heditinus responded throwing me his sword.

"You demigods come back from the dead?" Malagius asked, "And yet you claim to-" I cut those last words off. I thrust Heditinus's mortal sword through Malagius's stomach. Malagius froze, still whispering something about beautiful. As much as I didn't like killing, I preferred Malagius dead by far. He squirmed on the ground for a while, it was pretty amusing. Then Atlanta stomped on his helmet and removed it to reveal a bloody mess. She laughed loudly for a while and I found myself smiling at her violent attitude. She found me staring and flashed me her smile again.

We arrived back at the Greek camp as the sun's rays were dipping beneath the horizon. I cleaned Malagius's bloodstains on Heditinus's sword for him. Achilles came to me and wished me good luck for my journey home, I wished him good luck for his duel tomorrow, I told him he'd need it. Achilles just laughed and told me he was invincible, I knew all too well he wasn't. I said goodbye to him and pretended I didn't know he was going to be dead the next day. Heditinus came into my tent before night was fully upon us and took Leon's old bed. It was sad to see the amount of cabin mates I had decrease dramatically, it was pretty unsettling. I slept that night easily anyway, killing people all day is hard, dirty and disturbing work.

I woke early in the morning, but got up anyway. It was good to walk again without armour restricting me. No one was up; even the early beams of sunlight were only peeking above the east. I sat on the ground in an awful ancient Greek dress thing and it finally hit me I'd be going home today. Whether it was with the son of Kronos or not, I needed to be back home. Then the next wave of knowledge struck my mind. This was the last day I'd see Atlanta, this was the last day I'd be able to see all the people I'd fought alongside with during the Trojan War. I found myself staring at the sun over the horizon.

"Hey Nico," the voice brought me out of my daze. I turned to see Heditinus standing beside me.

"Hi," I greeted.

"I don't trust that Zane kid," he said.

"I don't either," I informed, "Ever since we were taken to the fortress he's been... different. I think Kronos told him he was his dad there."

"His dad is Kronos?" Heditinus asked wide-eyed.

"We're pretty sure." I turned back down to the ground.

"It's sad you're leaving today," Heditinus started, "You would've been a great friend, but I guess you have friends back in your time."

"Yeah," I sighed, suddenly realising just how much I missed my old gang.

"Most of my friends are dead or back home," Heditinus said, "It sucks being a new recruit to war, leaving your family early. At least I'll see them soon. I get to voyage back to my home as a member of Odysseus's fleet!" I felt my heart sink; the poor guy didn't know he was doomed.

"Lucky," I said trying to sound happy for him, "But it'll probably help you if you find a different ride home."

"Why?" Then he saw my worried face and said, "Oh, something bad happens to the fleet?"

"Extremely," I replied, "Very famous story."

"Well I'll trek home with some of the other young guys, might be harder, but clearly it'll be better." He smiled. I nodded. Heditinus's stomach growled loudly. I held back laughter at the gurgle of the juices inside him.

"Can we go get breakfast?" he asked, "If you couldn't tell, I'm really hungry." We laughed and walked over to the tables set up in the corner of the camp.

We told each other about average life in our times and it seemed more of a shame I couldn't take him to the future with me. The camp was mostly empty as most had left for the end duel, but a few guys remained to pack up tents and belongings and start the journey home, we knew all too well we'd won. Achilles had congratulated me for destroying the giant automaton and informed me he was going to be fighting in the duel. I'd politely wished him good luck, but knew it was his last day. Atlanta came over and ate with us, Zane stayed hidden. We talked like we had years left to know each other, but whenever that entered my mind I pushed it out.

Heditinus showed us that he could spray drinks from his eyes and Atlanta accidentally revealed she could make drinks pour out her nose. We were all laughing hysterically. Atlanta looked over her shoulder.

"Hi Zane!" she greeted. I followed Atlanta's gaze to see Zane.

"Nico we need to go," he announced.

"Can we just stay a little longer?" I pleaded, "We can't leave our friends so soon."

"Our friends live in the twenty-first century," he informed me, "Get your stupid sword we're leaving."

"We need to say goodbye."

"Goodbye," Zane said harshly, "Now we're going."

"I'm staying until noon," I insisted.

"Fine, I'll just take us back three days later." I shrugged Zane's comment off and turned back to Heditinus and Atlanta. Both looked sad, none of us wanted to leave each other forever.

"You guys are amazing," I told them.

"I know right?" Heditinus agreed.

"I'm glad out of all the people around during this time I was able to meet you. You're both amazing friends, I only wish I had longer with you."

"It's cool Nico," Heditinus said, "We'll meet you when you die."

"Comforting," Atlanta muttered.

"I guess I shouldn't keep Zane waiting too long," I sighed, "I guess it's goodbye."

"I guess it is," Heditinus sighed.

"Goodbye," Atlanta said, "I'll remember you forever."

"Goodbye friends," I farewelled and got up sort of glad my last moments with them were short, otherwise it would've been harder to leave them than it was.

I went into my tent and picked up my sword. I turned around and was pulled into a strangling hug by none other, than Atlanta.

"Goodbye Nico," she whispered, "Don't forget me."

"I won't," I promised softly, bringing my own arms around her warm back, "I won't forget anything about this adventure."

"I won't forget you Nico. You're an amazing friend and you've helped me realise who I am." I didn't think I'd done that much. So instead if responding I hugged her tighter and didn't let go for what should've been forever. She rested her head on my shoulder and I felt her warm tears dripping down my arm. To admit, I was trying hard not to let my own tears fall from my face. Time didn't matter for a while. I just wanted to hold and protect Atlanta forever. I could feel her heart beating against my own and life for an instant was perfect.

"Oh!" a voice said suddenly, making Atlanta and I jump out of our hug. There was a guy probably a bit older than us in the entrance to the tent.

"Uh, I'll be leaving," he added hastily and left the tent.

"I guess it's time for us to part," Atlanta sighed. She looked up at me with a tear-stricken face and a weak smile; she didn't want me to go as much as I wanted to stay with her.

"Goodbye," I farewelled finally. Atlanta leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead.

"Goodbye Nico," she farewelled.

"Goodbye," I said again, only more depressed that I was leaving. She walked out of the tent and left me in silence.

I stepped back into the open what felt like hours later. I blinked a tear from my eye and pressed forwards through the camp. I found Zane sitting quietly by a tree, sharpening his knives (yeah he had an amazing social life). He looked up at me conveying a sense of unworthiness through my mind.

"You're finally here," he muttered, "We're going home. I know the way."

"You've told me," I told him. Zane gave me a death stare, his golden eyes sending an unwelcome blast of heat through me.

"You are to hold my arm and not let go under any circumstance," he instructed holding his arm out in front of me. There was a loud cry of "goodbye" behind me and I heard footsteps approach. Zane grabbed my arm quickly as someone else gripped my shoulder.

Next thing I knew was that I was nowhere. I was flying so fast it felt as if my face was going to be pulled off; my body twisted and folded in ways it shouldn't have been able to; and my grieved emotions quickly morphed into shock.

I face-planted into wet grassy land. I could smell something dirty in the air. I could hear cars in nearby streets rush past, it was a welcome feeling. There was still a hand on my shoulder, but Zane's was gone. I pushed myself up off the ground and sat up. Much to my disliking, I found a bronze knife against my throat.

"You brought her!" Zane stormed catching my direct attention as he'd spoken English. I looked to my right cautiously without using my neck. Sure enough, Atlanta was lying on the grass with a knife pointed at her throat also. Zane was the idiot holding the knives.

"Swear on the River Styx you will not utter or write or sign or draw or give any hints about any single word about me or what my powers or parentage is!" Zane ordered reverting back to ancient Greek, "Or these knives will fall through your necks." He pressed the blade gently against my neck.

"I swear on the River Styx I agree to and will act on Zane's terms," Atlanta promised faintly, causing thunder to rumble in the distance. Zane focussed on me, his gold eyes really starting to burn my soul.

"I swear on the River Styx I will not hint, speak, write, draw or sign a thing about Zane," I promised making thunder roll threateningly in the distance.

Zane glanced at the sky.

"Now even after you're dead you will be unable to speak of me nephew," he sneered once again in English. Nephew that was a new title. "I have all the time I need on my hands."

"For what?" I demanded.

"Power," Zane whispered, his golden eyes glowing brighter as the word rolled from his lips. "I will begin a new reign. I will learn from my father's numerous mistakes and destroy all who get in my way. I'm going to rule."

"And how do you plan of going about that?" I asked.

"I'm not stupid Nico. That's all the info I'm giving a dead man." Zane's evil smirk widened as I felt his knife pierce my skin. In a split-second I whipped my hand out and held Atlanta, in the shadows of the trees around us I could shadow-travel, but not very far. I willed the shadows to envelop Atlanta and I in a wave of darkness and next thing Zane knew; we were gone.

I stopped on the outskirts of the small park we'd been in. Atlanta gripped my hand like a life-line. I heard Zane scream in rage as he figured out we weren't where he wanted us - in the Underworld, dead. I peered over my shoulder as I pulled Atlanta away from Zane's screams. I could see his figure moving behind a thick mass of trees, and then he was gone. That didn't stop me from sprinting with Atlanta away from my traitorous "friend". At that moment I really wanted to punch Zane in the face.

I didn't know where to go. I knew where I was, but I knew Zane would be around searching for us. As we emerged from the park I pulled Atlanta down a street I'd become familiar with for the wrong reasons. When Percy had lost his memory I'd had to keep his mother informed on what we'd found, I was heading to her apartment.

I didn't care how ridiculous a boy and girl running through Manhattan in ancient Greek attire appeared, I just wanted to get as far away from that park as possible. We made our way to the apartment earning a thousand stares and a million amused snorts. We took the stairs to the apartment two at a time. I found myself shaking. Betrayal was... new. Minos had been pretty arrogant the moment I knew him, but he was dead and was only trying to gain revenge, Zane just wanted to kill me because, he did. I found my hands shaking as I reached Percy's floor. I slowed my sprint to a jog and stopped in front of the door.

I banged a shaky fist against it a couple of times and a voice said, "Coming mom." The door creaked open to reveal Percy's sea green eyes. His eyes widened.

"Nico?" he asked, "You're back! You've been missing three days and Savanna's freaked out, Kyle's worried, Justin's followed your lead and vanished and Annabeth thinks Zane's an evil mastermind!" I was about to tell Percy Zane was, when I remembered the oath I'd taken upon me.

"Long story," I decided.

"Why are you here?" Percy asked, "I was looking for you the past couple days, but couldn't find a trace, so we assumed you'd visited your dad."

"I've had a couple close calls with going to him the hard way. That's why I ran here, safety. Err, someone is trying to kill us."

"You and that chick?" Percy clarified.

"Yeah."

"Well then get in," he finished ushering us in.

I sat on a couch and had to keep myself constantly focussed so I didn't drift to sleep on the overly comfy cushion. Atlanta had sat herself on the floor and Percy was listening intently to my recapping what had happened minus every part that mentioned Zane.

"So you have no idea about what happened to Zane?" Percy asked.

"No idea," I lied.

"Nico I'm not stupid-"

"I wouldn't bet on that."

"You know where Zane is."

"I can't say," I admitted, giving Percy a look trying to communicate all that had happened.

"Like Luke?" he asked more quietly. Unfortunately I couldn't answer without breaking the oath. It was like being locked in a closet, cold, dark, frustrating and inescapable.

Percy called his mom and told her that he was taking a trip to camp and wouldn't be home when she arrived. His mom was perfectly ok with that. It took a while to get Atlanta into a car. She held the seat in front of her throughout the journey to camp. She held her eyes shut tightly and her face screwed into a contorted expression.

When we walked into camp the first thing that hit me was the peace. For once I could only hear creatures stirring in the trees far away and the occasional words of encouragement coming from campers' mouths. The air had a serene breeze drifting through it. The Big House stood as strong as ever and the strawberry fields were in full bloom putting splashes of colour around the area.

Two satyrs were milling around and when I saw one's face, I couldn't not run up to the guy and tell him I was back! I ran over to my friend and he gave me a quick welcome back hug and smiled.

"You're ok!" Kyle proclaimed, "Praise Zeus!"

"It's good to be back," I told him.

"You might want to tell Savanna you're back or she might hug you to death." Kyle and I both couldn't stop smiling. I looked at his eyes and noticed how one eye was blue and the other was brown. It seemed strange that I hadn't noticed that about one of my closest friends.

"How's Justin?" I asked only too soon regretting it. My dream of Savanna screaming at nothing came back to mind.

"He's, bla-ah," those were the sorts of noises Kyle made when he got angry, "He's been kidnapped. Savanna says it was Zane. I really want to strangle that little pest." I couldn't agree more, literally, I was able to do more than nod at that question. Kyle sighed loudly.

"Nico bud, I won't let you go away three days again, you've lost all your fashion sense." He put a hand on my back and guided me forward a bit. "And you come back with a chick that smells so natural, and looks so beautiful. Where have you been?"

"Troy," I explained.

"But-"

"Yeah it was destroyed years ago. I know. It was crazy, time travel crazy. I'll explain later."

"Yeah," Kyle said sounding utterly weirded out. "Well, we should probably find Savanna; she's been a bit uh, emotional the past few days."

Atlanta stayed by my side all the way to the archery range still gripping my hand. She was silent, she didn't say a thing, she probably only breathed once or twice. Kyle walked beside me keeping quiet for the time being. The dry leaves crunched beneath my feet, it was a welcome sensation to have back. I stepped onto the archery range and scanned the Apollo crowd for Savanna; she wasn't there. Will Solace saw me and a smile spread across his face.

"Nico's back!" he announced, getting me a whole bunch of "where you been?", "what happened", "why'd you leave?" questions. I however only had one question I wanted answered.

"Where's Savanna?" I asked loudly. Everyone exchanged glances, until Spencer stepped forward. He had a solemn look in his blue eyes.

"Savanna committed suicide," he spoke softly.

"She what?" I blurted.

"Kidding!" Spencer quickly added, "She's probably still in the cabin, she's had some pretty scary dreams. I think one of our sisters went to get her."

"Cool," I said, "I'll go get her." And I sprinted towards the cabins, leaving Kyle in the dust.

I emerged into the front wing of cabins. I saw Savanna step out of the Apollo cabin. Her amber eyes were puffy and red, her brown hair looked worse than a bird's nest, her cheeks were tearstained and her open arms were shaking as she saw me. Really, it was the best thing I'd ever seen. She yelled my name and sprinted over to meet me as new tears formed in her eyes. We collided and our arms wrapped around each other, our relief and joy silently shared with one another. My eyes stung but I did nothing to stop the tears from flowing. Time seemed to freeze for our moment of reunion; the moment we broke apart came too soon.

I stared into her endless eyes unable to suppress the giant smile that grew over my face.

"I thought you were dead," Savanna breathed. I let her voice echo through my head.

"I was," I told her, "But somehow I came back."

"I'm so glad you're alive!"

"I'm so glad your ok!"

"Where were you?"

"It's a long story," I sighed. Savanna laughed.

Atlanta fell into step beside me.

"Where are we?" she asked in ancient Greek, reaching out and gripping my right hand. I gripped her hand. Savanna randomly flinched like she'd been shot.

"My home," I told Atlanta in her language. Savanna wiped a shocked expression from her face and smiled.

"It's great you're back," she told me, "I need to go to archery." Her voice sounded weak. Archery hadn't mattered to her five minutes ago, I knew something was up. Savanna walked away and left me too far away from her once again too quickly.

Atlanta looked up at me, deep confusion on her face.

"Who is that?" she asked, once again forcing me to speak in ancient Greek.

"Savanna," I told her, "One of my closest friends. Come on, I should probably formally introduce you to Kyle." Atlanta gave me a warm smile and we started walking back over to the archery range.

**Have I failed?**

**Was that good?**

**It's not done yet, **

**So you'll be back for more I bet.**


	17. Peace at Last

**Hey! It's me again!**

**Second last chapter! Gasp! What will we do?**

**Write a sequel? Pretty much. **

**Keep reading and keep an eye out for the next story I'll be uploading. **

**Chapter 17: "Peace" At Last**

Savanna wasn't with her siblings at the archery range, it was strange really. No one had any vague idea of where she was. I explained to the Apollo cabin where Atlanta was from and left them to get acquainted while I changed out of ugly ancient Greek attire. I came back to find everyone seriously surprised by Atlanta's archery skills, as they had no idea who she was. I shared with them the knowledge that she was a daughter of Artemis. There wasn't one of them who weren't shocked by that news. Kyle stood by the edge of the range where I told him everything that'd happened, that didn't involve Zane in any way. My anger towards Zane was still very much a wild fire. Kyle took in every detail with great interest, he acted almost as if it was completely normal to go to Troy and take part in an ancient war. I could see under his disguise, he was trying hard to mask his fascination about my story. We left Atlanta to get to know the Apollo kids as she and Will had begun a contest. Kyle trotted by my side asking if I knew anything about Zane, I answered with "I don't know"s and kept my head down.

We stopped at the doorway to my cabin. We sat and told each other what had happened for a while. I found out they thought I'd only been gone three days and that Zane had made a brief reappearance at camp before leaving again. It made no sense, why would Zane do that? It was only wasting his precious time. It took me a while to remember Zane's words, "I have all the time I need on my hands," and I knew Zane was too smart to waste a second of it. I too soon realized we were up against an unbeatable enemy. I remembered the mortal blades leaving Zane unharmed, not a scratch left on his hands.

"Kyle," I started, "Are the children of Titans gods?"

"Yeah," Kyle answered, "All the time." I would've told my fears to Kyle, but it wouldn't do anyone any good. Our enemy was a god.

I left us in silence for a while, contemplating the best way to kill a god. You just can't kill one. Kyle didn't say much for a minute. I couldn't come up with a way to tell my closest friend Zane was our enemy and he couldn't die.

"Oh joy," Kyle groaned, "Miss Happiness is here." Sure enough Annabeth came around from behind.

"Nico," she greeted, "You're back."

"Hi," I said.

"Weren't you and Zane caught together?"

"Do you know how wrong that sounds?"

"Where's Zane Nico? I know you know something. It's that same look you had when you were trying to deny your sister sacrificed herself. You know something, you're just too afraid to admit."

"I don't know," I lied, trying to avoid breaking my oath.

"Yes you do," Annabeth said.

"I can't tell you," I sighed, "It's like my dad." Annabeth looked shocked.

"Zane forced you into an oath?"

"I can't say anything."

"Anything about who?"

"You're smart Annabeth, you know." I looked away before she could start quizzing me more, any more hints and I'd probably wind up breaking the oath. She sighed quietly, I was victorious, she knew she couldn't get anything out of me.

"Keep an eye out for anything strange," Annabeth instructed, "I have a suspicious idea of who his parent is." She walked away without another word. She was one of four who knew the world wasn't at peace. I couldn't tell her though, I couldn't even talk to Atlanta about it, and Zane the evil guy himself was the only guy I could say anything to.

Kyle yawned loudly before he picked up some litter and ate it.

"We should get something to eat," he said through a mouthful of rubbish; "Minty wrappers are feral and I take it ancient Greek food was nothing like burgers." I'd only eaten breakfast an hour ago, I wasn't hungry but I needed a distraction.

"Ancient Greek food was about as feral as seafood," I told Kyle getting up off my cabin's steps.

We sat and ate for ages. People kept coming over and asking where I'd been, I told most to get lost and others that I'd been east, never the real answer I couldn't be bothered to explain my story again. Atlanta came over later, looking defeated and sad; she didn't come first in the archery contest. I still had to speak to her in ancient Greek; it was becoming confusing with the constant language switching. Kyle had a long conversation with her about nature and Odysseus (don't ask how the two topics collided, it had something to do with kissing a tree). Camp seemed so normal so calm, but whenever I looked at Atlanta, I could see our adventures reflected in her eyes, the fortress, the telekhines, the giant automaton and the betrayal. It weighed down on my attitude. I should've been happy to be back at camp, instead I felt angry and sad. Only an idiot would be unable to see Zane was planning something terrible.

Kyle got up to go pee and left me and Atlanta alone for a moment. Atlanta looked at me.

"He's planning something isn't he?" she said in ancient Greek, talking about none other than Zane.

"He'll want power," I told her, then it finally clicked in my mind, "Holy Poseidon! He's going to raise Kronos again so soon!"

"Again so soon?"

"Kronos almost rose again two years ago," I told her and wound up recounting all the wars I'd lived through. Kronos was going to rise again and no one would be able to know.

A dark shadow expanded over me. I turned up to see Chiron, the one guy who might have actually been able to clear something up. He gave me a concerned smile, Atlanta looked as if she'd won the lottery. The look of sheer shock mixed with unbelieving joy.

"Chiron?" she asked.

"Ah, welcome to camp Atlanta," Chiron greeted in ancient Greek, "How have you wound up here?"

"I can't say," she replied. Chiron gave an understanding nod.

"I believe there's plenty of room in Artemis's cabin. You could get Olivia to show you around, I believe you'll be staying for some time." Chiron smiled and Atlanta stood up.

"Where is this Olivia?" she asked.

"She will be with her siblings at the archery range. I believe you've been there before. I need to speak with Nico." He gave Atlanta a slight bow and she walked away.

"Nico walk with me," Chiron instructed back in English, "I would like to hear the full extent of the details of your journeying." I stood up, my feet gaining pins and needles from sitting down for too long. Chiron guided me along the outskirts of the woods before resuming speech.

"Nico," Chiron begun, his deep, clam, firm voice going straight into my thought, "I have heard others recount your story. I would like to hear from the one who experienced it. Don't lie to me Nico; I seek to know the truth for the better. I request you explain every vital detail to me." He looked at me with his endless eyes; I had to lie to that all-knowing face. I couldn't tell him about Zane. I told him everything I could. I pretended Zane hadn't come to the same place as me, but when Chiron regarded me with that firm expression, I knew he didn't buy it. Yet Chiron still thought deeply over my words.

"Chiron," I started, "If there was a half-Titan half-mortal person out there, would they be immortal?" Chiron gave me a quizzical look, clearly wondering why I'd asked such a question.

"No amount of mortal blood can dilute the amount of immortality within pure Titan's blood," he explained, "Why do you ask?" I sighed loudly and my shoulders drooped.

"I can't say," I admitted, "It's like how you can't talk about Camp-Jupiter. Can you just explain if it would be possible for there to be a half-Titan?" He inspected my face again.

"I understand what you speak. There has once prior been a half-Titan, a son of Atlas. He didn't enjoy his father's companionship and put Atlas back in his place and then moved to Mount Olympus where he resides currently. His mother died after giving birth. Mortals are not supposed to come to such close contact with immortal blood. Bearing an immortal would only make one perish." That explained why Zane had been in the orphanage, why he didn't know his mother, why he was immune to mortal blades.

"Chiron," I continued, "Has there ever been a time of peace in the world?" Chiron frowned.

"Brief moments," he informed me, "Moments I would give so much to have back. Moments I watched people waste. Time is precious Nico. One of the most valuable possessions anyone has. I fear this time will be another momentary period of peace. The gods will argue, monsters will recover, mortal wars have already resumed.

"Our moments of trial always seem far longer than our times of joys, of successes, of gladness, of harmony, of perfect belonging. Life is too short to waste away doing nothing. It's much like a test, to determine where we belong for the eternities. Don't waste a minute, every moment is valuable. Heroic feats alone won't get you to the Isles of the Blessed; you must search diligently for ways to make the world a better place constantly. Then hopefully one day, peace and harmony will reign and rid the world of evils. It would be wonderful to see a day such as that." I dwelt on those words for a while. I had to agree with Chiron too much, time was valuable beyond earthly riches; pure peace was a day I would live almost anything to see, almost. The main thing that saddened me was that Chiron knew this would be a brief moment of peace in a lifetime of peril, he knew something was going to happen, yet he didn't want to ruin the illusion of peace everyone else abided within.

I looked around at the camp, the woods, the lake all seemingly perfect and peaceful. Yet there was that hollow state, like the whole camp had taken a breath in and dared not let it go. Something threatening was on the rise. Something terrible was going to happen. And no one had a clue.

Chiron gazed over the lake, empty longing in his eyes. His eyes seemed to reflect all the lifetimes he'd lived through, all his disappointments, all his sorrows, all his losses and yet also his joys. There was something in those humbled eyes, something different to anything I could comprehend, yet somehow I knew it was a treasured memory. Chiron turned back to me.

"Life will continue to present challenges," he said, "I hope you will be strong enough to rise up to each of them. Dinner is ready. We shall go eat." And with those last words he galloped away.

I ate at my lonely table that night. I savoured each bite of modern-day food I tasted. It had really never tasted better. Yet no amount of food I could eat could fill the hole inside me angry fire was creating. Zane was going to diminish this state of harmony that was around us. He was going to once again take us to war and strip souls away from their lives. He was going to tear apart more families and friendships. He had to be stopped. But he had more time than anyone to devise an escape route, a backup plan. Zane had more time than anyone. I had to admit I wanted the kid dead. I wanted him deader than dead. I wanted his fate to be worse than Kronos's. No one needed to be hurt more than they had in the past few years. No one. Except Zane. If he was willing to send lives back into that lost, hopeless, languishing, empty state, he could have it himself.

I looked over at the happy camp. All eating and mingling happily, Throwing food across their tables without a care in the world; there was no one who wasn't smiling, even Mr D appeared slightly amused. I looked over at them all, partially jealous of their minds' freedom, the lack of stress on their shoulders, the lack of a dark secret they were forced to contain; nevertheless they were unaware and unprepared for the dangers that would soon surface.

Every camper was under the impression peace had come at last...


	18. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

The many slaves valiantly raised the final brick on the seventh outer layer. That duty was due to be performed the day previously. Though the slaves were tired, drenched in sweat, dirty and achy and the sun was fading into golden streams that pierced the horizon, their employers demanded that the slaves kept working. So they did. The slaves kept working valiantly. They knew that if their exhausting task was not fulfilled by the morn their gods would beat them severely. They were so faithful, so diligent, so humble, and so persuadable, they were wonderful workers. They pushed through the harsh winds of the desert and abandoned their crops and families to do their work.

An elderly slave stumbled under the weight of his heavy stone. Slave-drivers barked orders at him, but his shaky legs refused to carry their load. The slave fell to the ground again and his masters came upon him. They tore apart the bare skin on the slave's back with their whips. Moaning, bleeding, agonised, the slave tried to persevere and used his frail hands to lift his body. He failed. Disheartened he begun weeping loudly for failing his duty. Slave-drivers once again yelled loudly at him for lying idly on the ground, even though he was unable to give himself any aid.

Zane watched as the slave was dragged across the coarse sand, the slave's bleeding back leaving a faint trail of where he was pulled. Even in the slave's dying state he still cried for aid, he wanted to get up and continue working, he wanted another chance. Zane smiled as he watched the slaves toil heavily, exerting all their efforts into the task before them. Slaves like that were the roots of the ever-growing, ever-powerful empire.

Zane sensed a disturbance behind him. He abruptly turned away from the palace balcony that over-looked the pyramids' construction and gave his acquaintance an expressionless face. The king of Egypt knelt before Zane, bowing his head in humility. Ramses II dared not look up until invited to. An evil satisfaction grew within Zane. He was worshipped by the greatest warriors; he was worshipped by great and mighty kings. Zane was a god.

"Arise my friend," Zane greeted warmly.

"Master Zan," Ramses II replied, bowing his head a second time, mispronouncing Zane's name.

"What is it you seek from me?" Zane inquired with a seemingly innocent intent.

"I wish to speak to you of the slaves," Ramses replied, "The are not completing their full labour by the time promised. They have broken their oaths. You, a god should surely know their fates. But I fear that they may never keep their full standard, yet are undeserving of a harsh fate." Ramses shifted the crown on his head cautiously.

"And you wish?" Zane asked.

"That you commune with Osiris and Anubis and convince them that my kind loyal servants do not get punished for this small oath."

"I shall commune with them and give you the answer you seek. They will be most likely very understanding of your concerns; they know that Egypt's servants are the key to keeping our empire strong."

"Thank you master," Ramses acknowledged.

"Leave me in peace to commune with my brethren, mortals are not welcomed in the Duat."

"Yes master," Ramses finished and exited through the stone archway, leaving Zane with his cunning and thoughts once more. He looked back over his shoulder at the pyramid in construction and knew that like the pyramids, Zane's empire would be carved into the earth forever.

His plan was destined to work far better than needed. Zane flicked his wrist and the old frail man in the corner became visible once more. The man's eyes crackled with electricity, his grey hair and beard was tangled and seemed unhealthily white. Thick golden chains bound his thin wrists.

"See how much power I will hold," Zane told the man, "Kings worship me. If you weren't so foolish brother, you would have kings worshipping you in the twenty-first century. Yet you let mortals do as they please. You held the title "King of the Gods" yet do little to restrain them as well. You never recognised your potential. You're a foolish man. You're more of a fool than your brothers."

"I am no fool," the old man tried to yell, but in his frail state, he could perform little more than a whisper.

"You are a fool, you know it. I am no fool. I will bend our father to my will, unfortunately you will be chained to this time and unable to watch me start the empire you could've had. This time is yours forever." Zane gave a smirk to the weakened man and began chanting, in a language from the old man's time of power. Zane gently closed his eyes. The old man writhed desperately trying to escape his bonds. Soon the man started yelling for help. Zane opened his eyes, and gazed into the old man's. The last thing the old man saw was the unbearable golden glow from those eyes.

Zane blinked his eyes and ceased his chant. He smiled contently at the frozen old man, perfectly still except his electric blue eyes that continued to crackle as if lightning was within them.

"What have you done you old man?" Zane whispered to the frozen man, "You've wasted your power, only equal to mine on nothing. Look how powerless I've made you. You could've reigned with me if you had wanted to. You've wasted away an eternity Zeus."

Zane gave a final glance to the frozen weakened Zeus, before he vanished into thin air, creating a cloud of never dispersing mist around Zeus's lifeless figure.

**Author's Note: **

**Is it bad that I found that really fun to write? **

**Anyhoo…**

**For the sequel I need two more characters! I've tried everything I can and can't come up with them! PM me if you'd like to help, or think you might be able to. **

**Thanks for reading…**

**I love you!**


	19. Author's Note

**Ok. So, it's done. The sequel I promised is up. It's called House of Hades when Lightning Won't Strike (take a guess why).**

**You can still review this story I promise! Please do so. **

**Hope you enjoyed the story, I really love you people reading it out there. And please read my other stories. **

**For those who have read it, you're the best! And if you're going to read it you're the best also. **

**So for those with this still on their alert list, it ain't gonna get more chapters sweethearts. Favourite it instead, I'll love you more. **


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